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
'Justice Secretary Dominic Raab can't say when court backlog will be cleared'
New Justice Secretary Dominic Raab has told the BBC he can't promise when unprecedented delays in prosecuting and jailing criminals will be solved. In an exclusive interview, Mr Raab said he hoped Crown Court backlogs in England and Wales would fall within 12 months. But he could not say when they would reach pre-pandemic levels. More than 60,000 Crown Court trials waiting to be heard with many serious cases being listed now in late 2023. Mr Raab, who is also the deputy prime minister, said he acknowledged that some victims faced agonising waits for justice...
Former justice secretary Robert Buckland said earlier this year that cuts as well as Covid had contributed to the backlog - but his successor told the BBC that he hoped a corner was now being turned. "In the Crown Court ... we are just starting to see the backlog flattening," said Mr Raab. Asked if the backlog would be below pre-pandemic levels a year from now, he replied: "I don't think we will be that far forward. We need to drive down, we have got the plan working with the judiciary to drive this forward as quickly as we conceivably can. We're going to reduce the backlog within six to 12 months, I can't give you a precise figure... it depends on lots of moving parts but I am confident we will make progress."
'Reported hate crimes in England and Wales up 9% since start of pandemic'
Reported hate crimes have risen by 9% to a record number of more than 124,000 across England and Wales since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, according to official figures. Racially motivated crimes, which are nearly three-quarters of the total number of 124,091 hate crimes, increased by 12% over the year ending in March 2021 amid Black Lives Matter protests and a backlash from far-right activists. Homophobic hate crimes increased 7% to 17,135, while disability hate crimes increased by 9% to 9,208. Transgender identity hate crimes increased by 3% to 2,630.
A Home Office report said police have improved the way the crimes are recorded, but there have also been “short-term genuine rises in hate crime following certain trigger events”.
'Huge rise in domestic abuse cases being dropped in England and Wales'
Victims of alleged domestic abuse are seeing their cases dropped at a rapidly increasing rate, according to data obtained by the BBC. Police have six months to charge common assault cases, including domestic abuse, from when the alleged incident took place. Campaigners say this is unfair because of the complex nature of many cases. Figures show 3,763 cases were dropped for this reason in the past year, compared with 1,451 four years earlier. Across the past five years, 12,982 cases have been ended because of the six-month limit being passed.
'LCJ reveals new platform for remote hearings'
Virtual consultation rooms and a network to monitor connectivity issues in remote hearings are part of a new platform that will help the courts to reduce the backlog of outstanding cases, the lord chief justice has claimed...
Lord Burnett said: ‘The new service platform is better and will provide a higher quality and managed platform to enable some or all participants in legal proceedings to join by video from any suitable location. It was first demonstrated to me in May last year and its potential was clear. I have more recently seen it in operation in the Employment Tribunal in Bristol. The Video Hearings Service aims to deliver a flexible and efficient service for people using courts and tribunals as an alternative to attending. It will save participants the time and inconvenience involved in travelling to a court building and thus save expense for litigants, whether directly when they are unrepresented or because their lawyers are spending less time on a case. It should enhance access to justice for many. The service has many additional features compared to other remote video platforms, including virtual consultation rooms, checks and guidance to ascertain compatibility for use, the explanation of court rules for the user and a monitored hearing network to check connectivity thus ensuring that no-one drops out unnoticed.’
'Common Platform blip illustrates danger of overestimating technology'
The lord chancellor’s enthusiasm to use technology to ‘drive things forward’ in the justice system has suffered a setback after the lord chief justice revealed that the rollout of a digital case management system to cut administrative bureaucracy and unnecessary delays has been paused. In a speech to the Legal Wales Conference last week, Lord Burnett of Maldon said the rollout of Common Platform was paused in August and September due to ‘some difficult problems and setbacks’ that code writers and IT specialists responsible for the project were trying to resolve.
'Channel migrants: Patel seeks immunity for Border Force if new tactics kill'
Priti Patel wants to grant Border Force officers immunity from criminal prosecution if migrants die during new “turnback” operations in the Channel. The home secretary has sanctioned the tactics under which Border Force jet skis will intercept small boats and redirect them back towards France. The powers have prompted a significant backlash from opposition MPs, charities and immigration campaigners. France has said the tactics breach international law and that it will retaliate if they are used in the Channel.
It is an offence in UK law to violate international maritime legal obligations to rescue a person in distress at sea, with a maximum penalty of two years in jail. Relatives of someone who dies as a consequence of a Border Force officer breaching their obligations to rescue someone in distress could also bring a civil case against the government. However, provisions in the Nationality and Borders Bill, which is passing through parliament, will give immunity to officials from any criminal and civil law consequences of their actions during the turnback operations.
Cases
R v Paddon [2021] EWCA Crim 1485
The submission made on behalf of the appellant is that there were concerns over his mental health at the time of his appearance at the MC and the first PTPH at the CC and that it was therefore reasonable for him not to enter guilty pleas until those concerns had been addressed by a psychiatrist. The guilty pleas were entered within 2 days of that report being received by his solicitors and his prompt actions once the report was to hand entitled him to full credit. This was, it was submitted, the first reasonable opportunity he had to enter those pleas...
There was undoubtedly an opportunity for the appellant to enter or indicate his guilty pleas before he did. He could have indicated them at the MC or entered them at the original PTPH on 7 January 2021. The real issue is as to why that was not done...
The appellant's decision to plead guilty was the result of a second change of stance by him. In his police interviews and at the MC he indicated that he did not know what was happening. He abandoned that assertion at the PTPH when he said that he could not have resisted the pressure being brought to bear on him by his co-accused and acted out of duress. He abandoned that at the second PTPH. He might have done so because by that stage he felt that his defence was unlikely to succeed but his pleas were the result of a simple change of instructions nonetheless. We conclude that this was a plea delayed not because the report was a necessary pre-requisite to advising the appellant of his legal position but in order to "assess the strength of the prosecution evidence and the prospects of conviction or acquittal" (Guideline section F1). That being so, only a reduced level of credit and not the full one third was appropriate when the pleas were entered at a later date.
R v O'Bryan [2021] EWCA Crim 1472
This is an application on behalf of the Attorney General to refer as unduly lenient a sentence of four years imprisonment for causing grievous bodily harm with intent, passed at the Crown Court at Inner London by His Honour Judge Darling on 12 July 2021...
Was this "life-threatening injury" within the meaning of the Guideline? We were told that this is the first case to reach this court in which the July 2021 Guideline has had to be interpreted. Mr Ratliff was right in our view to accept that the phrase "life-threatening injury" does not cover every wounding causing injury which, left untreated, might lead to death. Most non-superficial injuries caused by a knife, save perhaps to an arm or leg where no artery is severed, will lead to loss of blood which, if no intervention takes place, could lead to infection or death from loss of blood or the spreading of blood to neighbouring organs. The Guideline must be read as a whole, and it must always be remembered that firstly (as with the previous Guideline) the harm caused must be "really serious" to come within the s 18 Guideline at all. Secondly, the sentence we italicised above at the start of the section on categorisation of harm emphasises that "the court should assess the level of harm caused with reference to the impact on the victim". Thirdly, apart from the reference to life-threatening injury, the cases placed within Category 1 are where "particularly grave" injury is caused (as opposed to "grave" injury, which is Category 2), or where the injury results in lifelong dependency on third party care or medical treatment; or where the injury is permanent and irreversible and will have a substantial and long term effect on the victim's ability to work or carry out normal day to day activities. In short, we accept Mr Panayi's submission that Category 1 is reserved for cases of exceptional seriousness even within the class of s 18 cases.
Since the Sentencing Council did not define life-threatening injury we think it would be unwise for us to attempt to give a comprehensive definition or to substitute wording of our own for that of the guideline. But we are satisfied that where more than two and a half hours elapsed between Mr Isaac's arrival at hospital and his operation, and there is no expert medical evidence that his life was in imminent danger, this is not a case which falls within the Sentencing Council's classification of life-threatening injury. It is rightly not suggested that there is any other feature of the injuries caused which would elevate the case from Category 2 to Category 1...
Other
'How much have Nightingale courts cost the taxpayer? £17 million'
Seven Nightingale hospitals sprang up across England during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, but in the end few saw any patients. Ministers might try to claim that the Nightingale courts were more of a success, not least because 23 of them are still running. But Times Law can reveal that the Nightingale courts have cost the taxpayer at least twice as much to run as pre-pandemic courtrooms — and in some cases they were hardly used.
Figures from a freedom of information request that ministers attempted to block for 11 months have shown that the pop-up courts — which the Ministry of Justice launched slightly more than a year ago to keep the justice system running during the lockdowns — cost more than £17 million over six months to March 2021 and that some courtrooms were used for only a few days. The figures have exposed what one criminal law QC describes as a “traumatic waste of money” that has been “costly for complainants and defendants alike”.
Super Courtroom
The first multi-hander trial started last week in our new super courtroom at Manchester Crown Court...