\n<\/p>\n
Stephen Parkinson dreamed of being the most senior prosecutor in England and Wales before he even qualified as a barrister, but now finds himself in a situation more akin to a nightmare.<\/p>\n
As the director of public prosecutions (DPP), Parkinson is facing questions over why he felt he could not proceed with the trial of two men accused of spying for China. He said the case was dropped because prosecutors had tried and failed to obtain a witness statement from the government stating that China posed a current \u201cthreat to the national security of the UK\u201d.<\/p>\n
But that explanation has been called into question by some senior lawyers and, perhaps more ominously for Parkinson\u2019s job prospects, by politicians too. A government minister, Stephen Kinnock, declined to say whether Parkinson was the right person for the job of DPP.<\/p>\n
A former colleague described him as independent minded, unafraid to take difficult decisions and someone who followed his principles and would have thought it through before issuing the statement about the China case.<\/p>\n
<\/span>\u2018The core of CPS work is decision-making on which cases to prosecute,\u2019 Parkinson has said.<\/span> Photograph: Martin Godwin\/The Guardian<\/p>\n In an interview with Counsel magazine, Parkinson described himself as a \u201clate developer\u201d at his Wiltshire comprehensive school, who had not applied to university initially because he had poor predicted grades for his A-levels.<\/p>\n He took a year out after better than expected results during which he applied to study law at university \u2013 an idea put in his mind by his younger brother who was planning to do the same \u2013 and he worked as a dustman, on a kibbutz and as a travelling ballpoint pen salesman in South Africa.<\/p>\n Parkinson joined a criminal barrister\u2019s chambers after studying law at UCL. \u201cAlready during pupillage, I had decided that I wanted to work for the DPP\u2019s office [the forerunner of the Crown Prosecution Service], indeed that one day I\u2019d like to be DPP,\u201d he told Counsel. \u201cIn those days, a typical announcement following a serious crime was that \u2018the papers have been sent to the DPP\u2019. I thought: \u2018I want to be that person.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what\u2019s happening and why it matters<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n In the 40-plus years before he became \u201cthat person\u201d he clearly kept his eye on the post and on those in the seat he coveted. Given his current travails, Parkinson will be hoping that Keir Starmer does not hold grudges as, according to the Telegraph, he was critical of the prime minister\u2019s record as head of the CPS, suggesting he was over-reliant on the advice of others.<\/p>\n Parkinson is said to have described the Labour leader as \u201can average DPP\u201d and said: \u201cHe had no in-depth experience of prosecuting \u2026 he was a defence and human rights lawyer.\u201d<\/p>\n Additionally, when Starmer stepped down as DPP in 2013, Parkinson was scathing of the fact that the office had since 1987 always been held by barristers from private practice.<\/p>\n \u201cNone had any experience of working within the public sector, none have had any serious experience of management,\u201d said Parkinson. \u201cThe last two directors have had no significant prosecution background at all before their appointment. Yet the core of CPS work is decision-making on which cases to prosecute, and subsequent pre-trial preparation.\u201d<\/p>\n It has been suggested that Parkinson\u2019s criticism of Starmer helped him land the job under the Tories. However, he held several roles in government in Tony Blair\u2019s administration, including deputy head of the attorney general\u2019s office from 1999 to 2003. At the end of his time there, he acted for Blair in the Hutton inquiry into the death of Dr David Kelly. It was the same year that protesters \u2013 one of whom who would be represented by Starmer \u2013 sabotaged US bombers at RAF Fairford before they were due to fly to Iraq.<\/p>\n Parkinson continued his work for Blair on the Hutton inquiry when he joined the city law firm Kingsley Napley, where he also defended Rebekah Brooks against phone-hacking charges. Given the charges were brought under Starmer\u2019s oversight, that may have contributed to the \u201caverage DPP\u201d comment.<\/p>\n At Kingsley Napley, Parkinson requalified as a solicitor \u2013 he is reportedly the first solicitor to become DPP since the 1960s \u2013 became head of criminal practice at the firm and then senior partner. He told Counsel magazine that the DPP job came up three times when he was at Kingsley Napley and he was approached each time but it was never the right moment.<\/p>\n When he retired as senior partner in 2023 he \u201cwas looking forward to dog walking and running\u201d but when approached again \u201creminded myself how much I had always wanted to do the job\u201d. Two years into his five-year term, dog walking and running may suddenly seem more appealing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Stephen Parkinson dreamed of being the most senior prosecutor in England and Wales before he even qualified as a barrister, but now finds himself in a situation more akin to a nightmare. As the director of public prosecutions (DPP), Parkinson is facing questions over why he felt he could not proceed with the trial of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28656,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[1844,2153,17006,1140,779,6400,14315,124,6723,2039,8878],"class_list":{"0":"post-28655","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-case","9":"tag-china","10":"tag-dpp","11":"tag-dream","12":"tag-job","13":"tag-nightmare","14":"tag-parkinson","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-spying","17":"tag-stephen","18":"tag-turns"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}