Criminal procedure – Plea in bar of trial – Oppression. Sheriff Court: Upholding pleas in bar of trial on the grounds of oppression by two accused who faced a single charge of assault, the court held that it was oppressive for the Crown at a trial diet on 28 November 2017 to have taken a deliberate decision not to call an earlier complaint containing a single charge in identical terms against the same accused, with the result that the instance in respect of that complaint fell at midnight on that date; yet to have then raised a second complaint: an impartial observer would think it only fair that the Crown, if it wished to preserve its right to prosecute, should have sought the sanction of the court to adjourn the trial diet or to desert the complaint pro loco et tempore, and to allow the prosecution on the current complaint to carry on would amount to an affront to justice.