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public how he had acquired, or had access to, moans other than his officiel cmoluments, although he might have no objection to giving an explanation to the head of his department. A local critic came up with this suggestion. Ho said:-
it should be made absolutely clear in the clause that before giving his consent to a prosecution under this clause, the Attorney Contral personally must be dissatisfied with the public servant's cxplanation."
And so, in a subsequent attempt to make section l☛
more palatable to the critics, the draftsman inserted what is now sub-section (2) of section 10, namely:
"No prosecution for an offence under sub-section (1) shall be instituted without the consent in writing of the Attorney General, who shall, before consenting to the institution of a prosecution against a person for such an offence, inform that person that a prosecution against him for such an offence is under consideration and give him an opportunity
of making representations in writing to the Attorney General."
In other words, a pre-requisite to any prosecution
was to be the Attorney General's consent; but he was not to
be permitted to consent simply upon reading the police file,
no matter how strong the police case was. He was to be forced,
no matter what the circumstances, to write a letter to the
suspect giving him "an opportunity of making representations",
even although, from an examination of the police evidence, it
might appear to him to be practically impossible for the suspect
to give a credible explanation of any sort.
section
1J(2) was eventually put on the statute book.
And so,
From an examination of the police evidence as it
stood on the morning of 4th June i.c. before Godbor's flat was
searched, it seems highly probable that, in any event, he would
have been arrested on 11th June and brought before the court to
give his explanation. But what may have been a matter of
probability prior to 4th June, must surely have been converted to a matter of certainty after the police had had an opportunity of
examining the mass of documents seized in the raid. But Godber
had committed no offence.
The police were, and, so far as I know,