More details have now emerged about the postponement of a court hearing at Nottingham Crown Court on Friday for Anxiang Du, a Chinese businessman accused of stabbing a family of four to death in Northampton, due to the absence of a Mandarin interpreter, which was described at the time as “an absolute disgrace” by the judge, Mr Justice Julian Flaux (posts passim).
The judge has requested the attendance of an interpreter and on this particular point yesterday’s Express informed its readers as follows:
The clerk at Nottingham Crown Court said he had been told it was “not worthwhile” for an interpreter to turn up.
However, this version of events is disputed by Capita, as can be seen from the extract below from a report in Friday’s Northampton Chronicle and Echo:
A Capita spokesman said: “After the original interpreter booked to attend the hearing was unable to attend, Capita worked to secure a replacement.
“The replacement interpreter could not attend until 2.30pm and we communicated this, in good time, to the court.
“Capita at no time refused to arrange an interpreter to attend Nottingham Crown Court on cost or any other grounds.”
From the above quotation from the anonymous Capita spokesman, it is quite apparent that Capita is calling into question the honesty and integrity of the Nottingham Crown Court clerk or to put it into plainer English alleging the clerk is lying.
In my experience, clerks to the court are persons of the highest probity, whose duties according to Wikipedia include the following:
The Court Clerk is a critical safeguard for integrity of the courts. In most courts, only the clerk, but not a judge, is the keeper of the Seal of the Court. The clerk is also required to attest/authenticate judicial records, to render them such that command “full faith and credit”.
Who do you think is more likely to be lying: a crown court official with no axe to grind or a failing contractor incapable of meeting performance targets (posts passim) and trying to save face?
Ha ha ha. I started laughing after reading that post. You know what? Capita does not give an interpreter a job if it is not within 50 miles range. An admin usually says the following: we have a job but it is too far from you. It makes no sense how experienced an interpreter is, only miles matter. Poor admins are simply scared to assign an interpreter if a job is 53 miles away from his/ her address. What a perfect management 🙂