About
A free weekly collection of criminal law links - for practitioners, law students, and anyone with an interest in the criminal justice system of England and Wales.
Curated by Sam Willis, a barrister at 5 King's Bench Walk.
News
Record Low Prosecution Statistics
The number of people punished for crimes in England and Wales has hit a new record low, despite a rise in offences recorded by police. Statistics released by the Ministry of Justice showed the figure fell by 2 per cent in the year to June, while recorded crime rose by 6 per cent in the same period. “The total number of individuals formally dealt with by the criminal justice system in England and Wales is at the lowest since records began,” a document said.
'Courts given more sitting days to tackle backlog' (£££)
Court sitting days are to increase as justice ministers struggle to deal with the growing backlog of criminal cases. A notice on the judiciary’s intranet announced that following “extensive discussions” between the lord chief justice and the lord chancellor, the number of sitting days available in the crown court before the end of the financial year has been increased by 700. It said that the senior presiding judge, Lady Justice Macur, has distributed them among the circuits.
Lawyers said this amounted to an acknowledgment by the Ministry of Justice that the cost-saving measure of reducing the number of sitting days had gone too far, and reiterated their call for increased resources to prevent the collapse of the criminal justice system.
'Hidden rape conviction target revealed'
Rape prosecutors in England and Wales were given a conviction rate target which was never made public. BBC Newsnight has had access to a Law Society Gazette investigation, which found that from 2016 prosecutors were judged against a 60% target of cases ending in conviction. This may have caused prosecutors to drop weaker cases, campaigners say.
Conviction rate targets were not only applied to rape. A 75% target was applied to domestic violence cases, while the target for hate crime cases was an 85% level of conviction. An 85% conviction rate target was also applied to all magistrate court cases, with those in the Crown Court subject to a slightly lower level, 81.5%.
'Half of rape victims drop out of cases even after suspect is identified'
Almost half of rape victims are dropping out of investigations, as a growing proportion do not want to pursue a prosecution even when a suspect has been identified, according to a Cabinet Office report leaked to the Guardian.
Reported rapes are on the rise. However, police are referring fewer cases to the Crown Prosecution Service, which in turn is prosecuting even fewer cases. The highly sensitive data was assembled earlier this year by the prime minister’s implementation unit as part of an urgent investigation into the dramatic fall in rape prosecutions in England and Wales. Rape prosecutions are at their lowest level in more than a decade.
Cases
R v Idahosa [2019] EWCA Crim 1953
On 12th July 2013 at the Crown Court at Lewes before HHJ Kemp, Mr Richard Idahosa ("the Appellant") pleaded guilty to possession of an identity document with improper intention, contrary to section 4(1) and (2) of the Identity Documents Act 2010 ("the 2010 Act")... Leave was granted, together with the necessary extension of time, because it is arguable that the Appellant was not advised that he had a potential defence under section 31 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 ("the 1999 Act"): namely, that he was a refugee in transit in the UK seeking to claim asylum in Canada...
As was explained by this Court in R v Z, guilty pleas following erroneous advice can be regarded as nullities only where the facts are so strong as to show that the plea of guilty was not a true acknowledgement of guilt; the advice must go to the heart of the plea. For the reasons we have given, we have reached the conclusion that the present case fulfils this stringent criterion. Nonetheless, that without more is insufficient for the Appellant's purposes. The Court will only intervene where the defence would probably have succeeded and upon being satisfied that a clear injustice has been done...
It follows that we are driven to conclude that the Appellant did have good prospects of establishing that it is explicable that he did not present himself to the authorities in the United Kingdom during a short stopover in this country when travelling through to the nation where he intended to claim asylum.
Education
BPP Confirms Barrister Training Course Fees
BPP today confirmed costings for the new BTC will be £13,870 in London and £12,620 elsewhere, inclusive of Bar Standards Board (BSB) fees. This means its London offering is £5,200 cheaper (or 27%) than the current £19,070 price tag on its BPTC.
BPP’s market rival, The University of Law (ULaw), confirmed last month it will offer a new bar course that will be up to 31% cheaper than its existing offering. The new Bar Practice Course, or BPC, will cost £13,000 in London and £11,750 outside of London — inclusive of course fee and textbooks.
The Inns of Court College of Advocacy (ICCA) revealed earlier this year it will deliver a new training course for barristers priced at £13,000 in total.
Other
The Score — Bank Robber Diaries
What does it take to be a bank robber? Turns out, a lot more than just a plan or a gun. Over the course of 14 months, Joe Loya, aka the "Beirut Bandit," hit dozens of banks from San Diego to Los Angeles and beyond.
This is Loya's story. An all-access pass into the mind of a complicated man, whose traumatic early years primed him for a life of crime