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So the article says he has 70 charges, they failed to highlight the types of charges only focusing on 7 serious sexual offenses and a kidnapping spanning from 2008 to 2017 but it failed to distinguish between how many serious offenses and petty offense he may have been charged https://twitter.com/varshieee_/status/1356742128622329859
Now we must remember that being charged doesn’t mean someone is guilty of an offense, you’re only guilty when a court of law finds you guilty by way of decision or you plead guilty before a court of law.
So it is important to find out how many of these charges are now convictions, how many are still pending and how many have been dismissed. This is important as sometimes the criminal record may not be up to date and dismissed charges may still appear as pending.
This is so as a dismissed charge would not be taken into consideration by a presiding magistrate or judge when hearing a bail application as the person has been proven innocent and the charge no longer exists.
Further to this we must remember innocence until proven guilty and the many delays within our nations courts. Many times if the prosecution and/or complainant (charging officer) fail to meet the timelines set by the judge or magistrate bail applications are made
These applications are usually made after months even years of matters being before the court. Many times when a magistrate or judge sees that the prosecution are faltering in duty to ensure a speedy trial they are inclined to grant bail with certain conditions attached.
Another instance may be the complainant has not done a search of the persons criminal record and appears in court wherein he informs the prosecutor that “he has no matters to his knowledge” and this is indicated to the court.
Another consideration can also be how many of these charges are from the same incident and/or laid at the same time, for eg someone may appear before a magistrate with 10-20 charges of fraud or larceny on one day and in these instances the magistrate may grant bail.
In my humble opinion that article was poorly written and was clearly click bait. As it simple said 70 charges just to have the layman thinning he appeared on 70 different occasions and was granted bail. Proper details should have been provided considering the context of it.
