News
Rumours of Sentencing Changes
The government is planning changes to the law aimed at bringing in longer sentences for some of England and Wales' worst criminal offenders. The Sunday Telegraph says the measures could affect the sentencing of murderers of pre-school age children. The prime minister plans to use next month's Queen's Speech to introduce the changes, according to the Telegraph.
Other measures from Mr Johnson, outlined in the Telegraph, include:
- Changing government policy on prisoners becoming eligible for release at the halfway point of their sentences. Instead it wants violent and sexual offenders to serve at least two-thirds of their full terms
- Imposing sobriety tags on repeat drunken offenders. The ankle bracelets, which detect alcohol levels in the wearer's sweat, alert the authorities when someone has breached an abstinence order
- Moving away from the early-release system towards one of "earned release" and risk assessment for violent and sexual offenders
- Expanding the scope of crimes that can be reviewed under the unduly lenient sentences scheme to include stalking, coercive control and looking at child abuse images. The scheme allows members of the public to ask for sentences for murder, rape and child sex crimes to be looked at again
'77 more courts in England and Wales to close'
Nearly 80 more courts in England and Wales are due to close under a justice transformation scheme that is falling behind schedule, a watchdog’s report has revealed.
The report reveals a surprisingly high number of courts are being considered for closure by HMCTS, which reports to the Ministry of Justice. A total of 77 courts are currently scheduled to be shut down; until recently as many as 96 had been earmarked for closure.
'Crown court sitting days decision political'
A decision not to step up efforts to cut the backlog of criminal cases was 'political', the senior presiding judge has said as 40% of Crown courtrooms are reported to be sitting idle...
The senior presiding judge was responding to a letter from Bar Council chair Richard Atkins QC, who raised concerns in July about Crown court sitting days, trial delays and recorder numbers. In her response, dated 27 August, Macur LJ confirmed that Crown court sitting day allocations have fallen from 97,400 in 2018/19 to 82,300 in 2019/20.
'Domestic violence murders surge to five-year high'
The number of people killed as a result of domestic violence in the UK is at its highest level in five years. Last year, 173 people were killed in domestic violence-related homicides, according to data obtained by the BBC from 43 police forces across the UK - an increase of 32 deaths on 2017.
Bar Bullying/Harassment Reporting App
Talk to Spot, a smatphone app developed by Spot, a US tech company, will enable barristers to talk through and record contemporaneously inappropriate behaviour at work. Barristers can choose to save the report for their own records, or print the report and sent it to their chambers, employer, other bodies or the Bar Council.
The Bar Council says no human, nor the Spot team, will see what a barrister discusses with Spot unless they decide to submit a report, which they can do anonymously.
Cases
R v Twigg [2019] EWCA Crim 1553
This case raises a potentially important point of principle in relation to the admissibility as evidence of blood samples unlawfully obtained by the police in breach of statutory duties imposed by section 7 of the RTA 1988...
The decision in Murray is not, in our view, authority for the proposition that any breach of any of the procedures associated with the obtaining of specimens under section 7 of the RTA 1988 means that a specimen is automatically rendered inadmissible in evidence in criminal proceedings.
Other
CPS Annual Violence Against Women and Girls Report
Latest figures on prosecutions involving Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) have been released today by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
The VAWG report covers a broad range of offences including domestic abuse, rape, stalking and so-called honour-based abuse. Figures for 2018-19 show a 15.1 per cent fall in prosecutions and a 14.3 per cent drop in convictions across the domestic abuse, rape, and sexual offences caseload. This reflects the 12.3 per cent fall in the number of investigations referred to the CPS from the police, as well as significant increases in the volume of digital data meaning some cases are taking longer to charge.
Obscurity
'Reading the Riot Act 100 years on'
It is 100 years since the Riot Act 1714 was read for the last time in England and 200 years since it was read before the Peterloo Massacre in 1819. It was never a popular act. A magistrate or other official could order a crowd of 12 or more to disperse; if they did not do so within an hour then force could be used to scatter them.
The act had to be read in full, in particular the ‘God Save the King’ at the end. On one occasion the paper was snatched from the official’s hand to cut it short. Part of the act’s problem was that neither the police nor the crowd knew when it had been read, as when in 1833 PC Robert Culley was killed at Coldbath Fields near Gray’s Inn...