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
Election 2019 Manifestos Published
Conservative - Crime policies
- 20,000 more police officers for England and Wales over the next three years
- 10,000 extra prison places, £100m for enhanced security and more money for CPS
- Criminals imprisoned for four years or more to serve at least two-thirds of their sentence before release
- Tougher sentences for violent and sexual offenders as well as animal cruelty
- Greater freedom for police to stop and search those known to have carried knives, and anyone caught unlawfully with a knife to be immediately arrested, charged within 24 hours and in court within a week
Labour - Crime policies
- Recruit 22,000 more police officers and prioritise neighbourhood policing
- Restore prison officer numbers to 2010 levels and bring PFI prisons back into public ownership
- Scrap shorter prison sentences and introduce a presumption against prison sentences of six months or less for non-violent offences
- Restore legal aid for housing, social security, family and immigration cases and recruit hundreds of new community lawyers
- Review the Prevent and Protect programmes
Liberal Democrats - Crime policies
- Invest £1bn in community policing - enough for two new police officers in every ward, plus a 2% pay rise for police officers
- Recruit 2,000 more prison officers
- Introduce a legal, regulated market for cannabis
- Increase the use of non-custodial punishments - curfews, community service and GPS tagging - rather than short prison sentences
- Establish a new right to affordable, reasonable legal assistance and invest £500m to restore Legal Aid
Independent Group for Change - Crime policies
- More support in courts for victims and witnesses of crime
- New sentencing powers and sanctions tailored to the offence with stronger deterrent measures, such as bans from driving or from social media
- New programme of out-of-court mediation for parents who separate, plus compulsory "separating parents information programme"
Brexit Party - Crime policies
- Increase police officer numbers
- Introduce sentence ranges for young offenders to encourage rehabilitation
UKIP - Crime policies
- Increase stop-and-search to clamp down on knife crime
- Scrap the Crown Prosecution Service’s guidelines on hate crime
- Reverse the privatisation of the prison system
- Deport foreign criminals
The Bar Council's 2019 Manifesto for the Justice System
Today, at the Annual Bar and Young Bar Conference, Richard Atkins QC, Chair of the Bar, has announced the launch of the Bar Council's general election manifesto - Urgent Action Required.
You can read it here.
'Government refuses law change on child-abuse retrials'
Currently, only 29 "serious crimes" - including murder, rape and some class-A drug offences - allow for suspects to be tried more than once, where "strong and viable" new evidence has emerged. But the victims' commissioner, Vera Baird, had wanted this extended to cover non-penetrative sexual abuse of children, prompted by the case of former football coach Bob Higgins.
In a letter seen by the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme, Mr Buckland told Ms Baird he had "reluctantly concluded" extending the law would "not be right". He said the maximum prison sentence for child sexual abuse was "substantially lower" than for the crimes already covered by double jeopardy and widening the law "would inevitably lead to demands for the inclusion of other offences" - in particular, "crimes of violence". He added: "Ultimately, there is a risk that retrial might come to be regarded not as an extremely rare exception to the double-jeopardy rule but as a species of prosecution appeal".
Croydon Magistrates’ Court Update
We have been working closely with the contractor and following completion of the works our plan is to implement a phased return of work into Croydon. This will help us facilitate both the listing of work that was temporarily moved out of Croydon, as well as the work currently listed at Camberwell Green. The phases for work to return to Croydon are:
- Week commencing 20 January 2020 (all adult trials)
- Week commencing 27 January 2020 (guilty advised plea and not guilty advised plea cases, family and youth work)
- Week commencing 3 February 2020 (all custody cases and non- Crown Prosecution Service cases).
Cases
DPP v Goldsmith [2019] EWHC 3051 (Admin)
This is an application by the Director of Public Prosecutions ("DPP") pursuant to ss 54(3) and 55 of the Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act 1996 ("the 1996 Act"), and in accordance with Part 77.6 et seq. of the Civil Procedure Rules ("CPR"), for an order quashing the acquittal on 22 December 2015 following a trial of this defendant for wounding with intent contrary to s18 Offences Against the Person Act 1861...
After the 2015 acquittal the defendant on 29 August 2018 pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice, an administration of justice offence as defined by s. 54(6)(a). On 21 January 2019 HHJ Bindloss certified that in the opinion of the Court, but for the interference with a witness as pleaded by that administration of justice offence, there was a real possibility the defendant would not in 2015 have been acquitted of the s18 offence...
Thus the condition set out in s54(2)(a) that it appears to the court before which the person was convicted that there is a real possibility that but for (here) the interference the acquitted person would not have been acquitted, is met. The evidence of KM, following the script the defendant provided and which records an untrue account, was the interference.
R v Rashid [2019] EWCA Crim 2018
Before opening the case, the prosecution applied for leave to adduce evidence in relation to gang membership: specifically that the appellants were members of the Beckton Boys or ACG gang which was involved in acts of tit-for-tat violence with other gangs...
It was crucial that if PC Saban's evidence about gangs and associations were to go before the jury, that they should be directed as to the use to which it could be put. The judge herself had recognised the importance of properly directing the jury on this issue, yet when it came to the summing-up she did no more than give a direction that they had to be sure that they were gang members. If they were sure of this, they could use it to assist them on the question of intent and they should not be prejudiced against the defendant if they concluded that he was a member of a gang but they could decide what weight to give it.
We have concluded that the only complaint of substance was the direction as to the use to which the gang evidence could be used. Although the direction did not focus on the correct way in which the evidence could be used, it did make three crucial points. First, the jury had to be sure that the defendant they were considering was a gang member. This was a point specifically raised by Tshoma who said he was not. Secondly, even if they were gang members that did not mean they were violent or that they committed the offences with which they were charged. Thirdly, and linked to the second point, the jury should not in any event be prejudiced against the defendants because they were gang members, but they might give it weight.
Other
“Life means life for child killers” – the truth behind the headlines - The Secret Barrister
Today, in advance of tonight’s first leadership debate, a raft of Tuff On Crime initiatives have been peppered across the bulletins. We woke up to whole life sentences for child killers, and are ushering in twilight with a guarantee of immediate arrest, charge and court appearance for those carrying knives. Short, snappy policy snackettes that have the advantage of electoral delectability and tabloid acclaim, and only the minor drawback of being entirely pointless and/or unworkable.
As with so many recent announcements on criminal justice, there is a risk that fact-checking the substance only serves to amplify unreliable headlines, but it is worth looking closer at exactly what this “life really will mean life” for “child killers” policy means.