R v Mikail Jones

Facts

The appellant, Mikail Jones, was tried and convicted at the Central Criminal Court before Mr Recorder Malcolm Fortune. He appealed against conviction, and on 3 June 2026 the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) dismissed that appeal in a judgment reported as [2026] EWCA Crim 749. Following that dismissal, an application was made for the court to certify that the appeal raised a point of law of general public importance and to grant permission to appeal to the Supreme Court. The certification application was founded on the second limb of abuse of process recognised in R v Maxwell, namely that it would offend the court's sense of justice and propriety to try the appellant for robbery. The appellant's defence at trial had been mistaken identity, which he argued had no connection to the factual basis of plea earlier accepted by the prosecution from a co-defendant, who had admitted participation in the robbery by pleading to a separate offence of unlawful wounding not charged on a joint enterprise basis. That plea had been accepted in circumstances where the victim had not appeared to give evidence at the co-defendant's trial. By contrast, the victim did appear and gave evidence at the appellant's own trial. The full court, comprising Andrews LJ, Jay J and Griffiths J, considered the application and the written submissions made in support of it.