I try to maintain the best relationship I can with my daughter but it is so tough. I missed her first day at primary school and so many other “firsts”. This whole thing is so very cruel to her and she can’t possibly grasp the details of the situation I am in.

However, what she does understand is the growing sense of injustice she feels when she gets accused of something she hasn’t done. She told me that a teacher recently told her off for swearing in class before another child admitted it was them. She felt so angry because of the injustice.

On another occasion, the whole class was accused of stealing something but then it turned out that the apparently stolen item had actually been left at home that day. Again, she felt so angry about it.

She’s started to play a game with me on the phone – she asks me to guess what room she’s in. It’s a very sweet game and I’m not allowed to ask any questions. So, with very little information, I need to try to guess correctly and by the way I suspect that she moves around the flat just to make it even more difficult!

Sometimes, I do ask her to help me with a clue so she gives me a little more information but she never gives me all of the available information. She has an agenda – to make it impossible for me to guess.

Of course, that is just a game with a 6-year-old but it would also be true to say that it is impossible for me to make a reliable decision because I don’t have access to all of the available information, I’m sure you would agree.

So why oh why oh why oh why do we have a system where most of the important decisions are made without the decision makers (the jury) having access to all of the available information?

In criminal cases, there are common law rules about admissibility of evidence as well as various offence specific statutes and courts are trying really hard to prevent what they call “collateral” clogging up court processes. On first glance, this seems reasonable but we are in a position now where, in an attempt to lubricate the judicial process, crucial evidence is being withheld from the jury meaning that their verdict cannot be reliable.

Are these the grumblings of a grumpy con? Noe, they are an honest reporting of what happened in my case and the reflections of many stories I have heard from others.

Just as I can’t reliably guess which room my daughter is in, juries cannot reliably guess guilt and just as my daughter is hurt and angered by the injustice she faces, I am too.

NaN.