R v Williams (Roy) On 24 March 1976 the appellant appeared before the Crown Court to stand trial on an indictment. After
he had entered the dock and acknowledged his identity but before the indictment was put to him and
he was called on to plead to it, counsel for the Crown intervened to ask for an adjournment on the
ground that a prosecution witness, to whom the appellant’s counsel wished to put vital questions, was
too ill to attend the trial.