Being Charged

If you are arrested and charged with a suspected offence, you should first consider getting advice from a solicitor or other legal advisor. It is important that you tell police if you want to do this, as legal aid may be available to help you.

The process of ‘being charged’ is to accuse you of having committed an offence or a number of offences. You will be given a ‘charge sheet’ which is a document that has written on it the exact nature of the offence(s) that you are accused of, the court and date at which the first hearing will take place, as well as the police officer’s name. This will be read to you and you will be invited after being cautioned to make any comments if you wish. These will be recorded.

If you have been charged with an offence which is serious or it is felt that you may not turn up for your trial, you may be “remanded in custody.” This means that you will be kept in prison and required to appear in court. This could either be in person, or using a system known as “live link” closed circuit television. The police investigation will continue until a decision has been made by the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) either to prosecute or not to prosecute you for the offence.