Issue 181  

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.

5kbw.co.uk

News

'Data lays bare strain on criminal justice system in England and Wales'

The pressure put on the criminal justice system during the Covid-19 pandemic has been laid bare by official statistics that show the number of people dealt with in England and Wales fell by nearly a quarter amid evidence that the bottleneck has forced staff to carefully select which cases can be heard. Data released by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) showed the number of people being prosecuted or handed out-of-court disposals fell by 22% in the 12 months to September 2020, compared with the same period a year earlier. The figures also showed a 25% drop in the number of offenders convicted and a similar decrease in the number of people sentenced.

theguardian.com

More Nightingale Courts

Manchester Hilton hotel, and event spaces in London and Birmingham are among the next 14 venues to be confirmed and will be transformed into so-called ‘Nightingale courts’ – helping to reduce delays and deliver speedier justice for victims while also providing a financial boost to the venues. The sites will hear mostly non-custodial Crown Court cases, with the total number of Nightingale courtrooms set up across the country to enable more socially distanced trials increasing to 60 by the end of March 2021. Ministers have also confirmed today that a ‘super courtroom’ will be created at Manchester Crown Court, Crown Square to deal with so-called ‘multi-hander’ cases, which typically require more space as they involve multiple defendants being tried together – such as gang murder trials.

The confirmed Nightingale Court locations are:

  • Aldersgate House (Barbican), London - 2 additional hearing spaces
  • Maple House, Birmingham - 3 additional hearing spaces
  • Manchester Hilton Deansgate - 2 additional hearing spaces
  • Croydon - 2 additional hearing spaces
  • Wolverhampton - 2 additional hearing spaces for Crown
  • Liverpool 1 additional hearing space
  • Chichester - 2 additional hearing spaces for Crown
  • The ‘super courtroom’ to be created at Manchester Crown Court to deal with ‘multi-hander’ cases, will be a modification to the existing building at Crown Square.
www.gov.uk

'Suspected drug drivers may escape justice because police forced to ration forensic toxicology'

Suspected drug drivers may be escaping justice because police forces are having to ration forensic toxicology work, the outgoing forensic science regulator has warned. Dr Gillian Tully, who steps down from her post on Wednesday after six years, said there was not enough capacity in the system to handle the volume of work. She said the service needed to be treated as critical national infrastructure and given the funding and regulatory powers necessary to maintain the integrity of the criminal justice system. Dr Tully warned that police forces were having to ration certain types of tests, which led to backlogs in cases, and parts of the sector remained in a precarious position due to the shortfalls.

telegraph.co.uk

'Crime contract extension could delay legal aid review benefits'

The Law Society has warned that any benefits arising from the independent review into criminal legal aid could be ‘some way off’ after the Legal Aid Agency announced that its crime contracts will be extended for a further 12 months. Crime contracts currently held by criminal legal aid providers will be extended automatically until 31 March 2022. Existing providers will also be offered a further extension until 30 September 2022.

The LAA said: ‘After carefully considering our approach for the 2022 crime contract against the backdrop of uncertainty and the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, we recognise that launching a tender in April - as we had originally planned - would add further pressure during an already challenging period.’ However, the Law Society is worried that any benefits from the independent review, which is due to report by the end of the year, are now ‘some way off’. Society president David Greene said: ‘Hard-pressed practitioners are keen to see the review’s findings implemented as quickly as possible after its conclusion at the end of this year but today’s announcement will leave them concerned at how long a delay they may face before finally seeing the much needed changes which CLAR must bring about. There is a grave danger that when those changes come it will be too little too late.

lawgazette.co.uk

'Commission refers the murder conviction of Justin Plummer to the Court of Appeal'

The Criminal Cases Review Commission (‘CCRC’) has referred the 1998 murder conviction of Justin Plummer to the Court of Appeal...

Following a detailed review, the CCRC has decided to refer Mr Plummer’s conviction to the Court of Appeal because new evidence now suggests that the expert footwear mark evidence at Mr Plummer’s trial was fundamentally flawed and the jury were misled.

ccrc.gov.uk

Cases

R v Jessemey [2021] EWCA Crim 175

... In our judgment, although nothing is said whether in the rules or the Practice Direction as to the relevant section on the DCS onto which the indictment should be loaded, we agree with Mr Jarvis that in order for it to be preferred the indictment must be loaded into the "Indictment" section. For it to be otherwise would be a recipe for chaos...

The power to give notice of discontinuance of proceedings in the Crown Court is exercisable at any time before the indictment is preferred. It is not exercisable thereafter. In this case the indictment had been preferred. If it had not been, discontinuance of proceedings would not have been a matter for the court. Prosecution counsel's use of the term "my application...should it find favour" was inapposite. There could never have been any question of the judge making an order. She did not do so. She was simply a bystander albeit one who had correctly expressed concern at the course being taken. The consequence is that the single count indictment on which the prosecution had elected to proceed - albeit simply with a view to discontinuing - remained extant. Much more significantly for our purposes there was no conviction on that indictment. No-one appreciated the significance of this. No-one recognised that the nature of the committal for sentence under section 4 of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000, unaccompanied by a statement that the court would have had power to commit under section 3 of the 2000 Act, restricted the powers of the Crown Court to those of the Magistrates' Court...

The restriction on the judge's sentencing powers arose from a catalogue of unfortunate errors: the failure to take a proper view as to the acceptance of the appellant's plea in the Magistrates' Court; the consequent committal for sentence under section 4 of the 2000 Act; the failure to ensure that the court stated that it had the power to commit the appellant for sentence under section 3 of the 2000 Act; the failure to recognise the consequence of discontinuing the proceedings; the erroneous application of section 23A of the 1985 Act...

bailii.org

Other

'Is four years too long to wait for justice?'

The backlog in the Crown Courts has hit a record of 56,000 cases - meaning some cases are now being timetabled for 2023. The Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary Robert Buckland - the cabinet minister in charge of the courts - is promising that a recovery plan will bring justice. But will those plans make a difference to victims waiting for their voices to be heard?

bbc.co.uk

'How can a 5-year prison sentence ever reflect the intentional taking of a life?'

Yesterday, at Swansea Crown Court, 70-year-old Anthony Williams was imprisoned for 5 years for the manslaughter of his wife, Ruth. He had on Monday this week been acquitted by a jury of murder, having admitted manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility at an earlier stage of proceedings... So this is not an explanation as to why five years, or two and a half, is a good and proper sentence. What I want to do is to try to put that sentence into some sort of legal context, so that if it is not defensible, we know where to look to make changes...

thesecretbarrister.com

'Landmarks in law: when five men were jailed for consensual sex'

The case of five men jailed for engaging in consensual sadomasochistic sexual acts is one of the few judgments that most law students actually read, and the facts tend to stay with them. The appellants in R v Brown had been convicted of actual bodily harm (ABH) and wounding. A majority ruling in the House of Lords said the fact that the men had consented to the acts, which included inserting fish hooks through the penis and nailing foreskin and scrotum to a board, provided no defence. The ruling on consent, and the limits of the intrusion of criminal law in people’s sexual relationships, has been criticised by many since as paternalistic and homophobic.

theguardian.com

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