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
'Mayor boosts funding to tag knife crime and domestic abuse offenders'
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has today announced additional funding to boost innovative programmes to tag knife crime and domestic abuse offenders with a GPS tracking device on release from prison in a drive to cut reoffending, improve rehabilitation and reduce the risk victims face when an offender is released.
City Hall investment has now funded 600 tags - GPS tracking devices that are fitted to violent offenders and domestic abuse perpetrators after release from prison as part of strict new licence conditions. Sadiq is now directing an additional £350,000 – on top of £2 million already invested to tag persistent and violent offenders – to provide tags for 300 knife crime and domestic abuse offenders.
Evidence shows that GPS tracking devices can play an important role in ensuring offenders comply with the conditions of their release, helping police and probation services to reduce the risk faced by victims of domestic abuse, as well as ensuring that those who reoffend can be swiftly returned to prison. Of the 600 tags fitted to date, more than half of the offenders successfully completed their probation and 160 offenders fitted with GPS tracking devices were found to have breached the conditions of their release, and were returned to prison.
'Gun licence applicants in UK face social media checks after Plymouth attack'
Applicants for permission to own a firearm or shotgun will be subject to social media checks after the Plymouth mass shooting, ministers have said. Questions have been asked about how the Keyham gunman Jake Davison, 22, obtained a firearms licence and carried out his attack, in which he killed five people before turning the gun on himself...
The government said on Sunday it was preparing statutory guidance to help ensure higher standards of decision-making for police firearms licensing applications. This will cover social media checks on those applying for permission to own a firearm or shotgun, according to the Home Office. All police forces in England and Wales are being asked to review their firearm application processes and assess whether they need to revisit any existing licences.
'CPS embarks on summer hiring spree'
The Crown Prosecution Service has gone on another major hiring spree that could push the criminal defence community closer to extinction. The prosecuting body has launched a ‘National Lawyer Campaign Summer 2021’, with several jobs up for grabs. These include 14 Crown prosecutors, with salaries starting at £38,000, going up to £44,600. London posts will have an additional £3,150 recruitment and retention allowance. The CPS also wants to recruit 14 senior Crown prosecutors. The salary ranges from £48,077 to £62,590. Again, there is a recruitment and retention allowance for London posts. The advertisements for both roles state that length of employment is up to two years. The Gazette understands that whether candidates are offered fixed-term or permanent contracts will be based on business needs.
'Crime cutting prison scheme expanded'
Thousands of offenders will be steered away from a life of crime thanks to the roll-out of The Clink training kitchen scheme to 25 jails by the end of the year, Prisons Minister Alex Chalk has announced. Already running at eight prisons including HMPs Bristol, Downview, and Styal, the programme sees prisoners train in professionally-run prison kitchens for up to 35 hours a week – preparing and cooking thousands of meals daily – while simultaneously working towards professional qualifications which will help them find employment on the outside. The Clink has already helped over 2,500 offenders into stable and secure jobs since launching just over a decade ago through their training initiatives, with the expansion announced today expected to support a further 2,000 prisoners into employment.
Cases
R v Margelis [2021] EWCA Crim 1215
On 15th February 2021, in the Crown Court at Kingston upon Thames, the appellant Ovidijus Margelis changed his plea to guilty on a count of making explosive substances, contrary to section 4(1) of the Explosive Substances Act 1883. He did so following a ruling by His Honour Judge Barklem that a device concealed in a parcel sent through the post which would ignite and cause a fire was an "explosive substance" within the meaning of the Explosive Substances Act 1883...
... The device in this case was intended to produce a sudden triggering of fire as a result of the timer causing the circuit to be completed and to heat up, and therefore is at least capable of causing a pyrotechnic effect in accordance with the trial judge's direction which was approved by this court in Bouch. However, we would regard the most reliable test as being that which is indicated by Regulation 3 of the 2015 Regulations, which were not available when Bouch was decided. Nor were the definitions in the UN Recommendations which are to the same effect. Despite the circular nature of the definition in the 2015 Recommendations, it is clear (and is supported by the scientific evidence in this case) that the expression "pyrotechnic" has a recognised scientific meaning and that Parliament had this in mind when it amended the 1875 Act by reference to the meaning set out in the Regulations. Accordingly it can be said that a pyrotechnic effect occurs when, as a result of a sudden triggering event, heat, light, sound, gas smoke or a combination of these effects is produced through a self sustained exothermic (i.e. energy releasing) chemical reaction. No doubt a jury would need to be given assistance, in the form of expert evidence, to explain those concepts, but that should not cause difficulty. Applying this test, we have no doubt that the device in this case was at least capable of constituting an explosive substance...
... There was no report commissioned by the defence to contradict Ms Hills' evidence and the question whether her evidence might have been materially qualified by cross examination did not arise in view of the appellant's plea. In these circumstances we think the judge was right to say that, on the assumption which he made, the devices in question were explosive substances within the meaning of the 1883 Act. Certainly Mr Wainwright has not identified any issue of fact which, on this basis, the jury would have needed to determine...
International
'Fears for female judges in Afghanistan'
A global network of women judges fears that colleagues in Afghanistan could be in particular danger as the Taliban takes back control of the country. In a statement issued on Friday, the International Association of Women Judges warned that Afghan women judges and their families would be in particular danger due to the nature of their work and past rulings they have made in the criminal, anti-corruption and family courts. The association said the danger was exacerbated by their gender and the likelihood that offenders sentenced by them will be released from prison.
Other
'Would you let a robot lawyer defend you?'
Could your next lawyer be a robot? It sounds far fetched, but artificial intelligence (AI) software systems - computer programs that can update and "think" by themselves - are increasingly being used by the legal community...