Ifẹ Thompson, third-six pupil at Garden Court Chambers, was instructed by Casey Jenkins and Emily McNally of Hodge Jones & Allen.
The Crown Prosecution Service offered no evidence on two racially aggravated charges against a vulnerable young Black girl who was charged under the act for using Black British English/African American Vernacular English (AAVE) terms “N*gga” and “Cracka”.
The Defence, as part of their case, instructed an AAVE Linguist to provide the court with expert analysis of the etymology (the history of words) and the use of the above terms by AAVE Language speakers.
Ifẹ Thompson also raised a s.78 argument to exclude evidence that was obtained through a breach of data protection/privacy laws. The Crown also did not proceed on the charges related to this argument.
The Crown, on the day of trial and after further reviews, offered no evidence to these charges.
As part of this case, this child faced several assault against an emergency worker charges, to which she pleaded guilty. In mitigation, Ifẹ highlighted concerns regarding the adultification of the child by the police officers in this case. Taking all factors relating to this child into account, including her cognitive difficulties, the Judge sentenced her to a referral order.
This case marks an important win for language justice rights for Black and racialised language speakers.
