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Originally Posted by andyl
Just seen your latest Chris. I'm a bit confused by that reporting; how could Social Services impose bail conditions? They might advise the court but would presumably do so based on their knowledge of the family. But it's for the court alone to impose bail conditions.
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In court, the prosecution can press for bail to be denied, or granted only on certain conditions, and they can submit expert testimony to back up their demands. You never hear much about it in the media because reporting of bail arguments is largely prohibited by law. However, where the BBC says that "
bail conditions imposed by the court and social services..." I take that to mean that Social Services were pushing for the conditions that were imposed, through the prosecution. Magistrates are not legal experts. They are advised on the law by the court clerk and then weigh up the arguments from the legal representatives in the same way a Jury does. I don't imagine many magistrates would stray far from advice from social services, not least because in my experience, a good number of magistrates are also local councillors (county, district or parish), so they know who the social services people are!