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
'Criminal silks mark coronation'
Lawyers and Old Bailey judges have marked tomorrow’s coronation of King Charles by visiting a newly planted tree at Gray’s Inn, where the monarch is a senior royal bencher. Kirsty Brimelow KC, chair of the Criminal Bar Association, and silks, juniors and judges from the country’s most high-profile criminal court headed to the inn, where a beech tree was planted yesterday...
'Police reviewing how it treats indecent exposure after Wayne Couzens scandal'
Police are to formally review whether they should take indecent exposure more seriously amid emerging evidence that people who commit such crimes can escalate their offending, the Guardian has learned. It comes after it was revealed Wayne Couzens, the then-Metropolitan police officer who raped and murdered Sarah Everard, had committed a series of offences where he had exposed himself before the murder.
The review will be carried out by the College of Policing – which sets standards for forces in England and Wales – as forces contend with falling confidence among women after Everard’s murder and a series of other scandals... The review will examine a study from the US that claimed up to 25% of those who committed indecent exposure offences went on to carry out further or more serious crimes. In British policing, it had been seen as a relatively low-level crime with little attention paid to whether a man committing it could escalate their offending. But the US study found that an estimated 5-10% of exhibitionistic perpetrators later went on to contact sexual offending...
'Terrorist prisoners to face tougher limits behind bars'
Convicted terrorists will be banned from taking a leading role in religious services and face more rigorous checks for extremist literature as the government redoubles efforts to crackdown on dangerous radicalisers behind bars.
New rules will prevent terrorist prisoners leading the call to prayer or delivering sermons – positions they could exploit to gain authority or influence over other offenders and spread their poisonous ideology. This will strengthen existing measures preventing the most dangerous prisoners leading Friday prayers by extending the ban to all faiths and not just those in high-security prisons – protecting frontline staff and the public.
The government also confirmed today (30 April 2023) limits on prisoners’ property that will prevent extremists circumventing prison rules to hide and spread extremist texts. While under prison rules there are no limits on the number of books prisoners can own, the government will toughen these restrictions by stating that they must fit into two medium size boxes with a maximum weight of 15 kilograms. This follows instances where prisoners have gathered hundreds of books in their cells – in one case an offender had more than 200 books – in an apparent attempt to thwart prison officers searching for extremist material...
Cases
R v Ashaoui [2023] EWCA Crim 455
... This is his appeal against conviction. It is his case that he had already been tried twice for what was, he argues, essentially the same offence; the trial therefore was a second retrial which should have been stayed as an abuse of the process of the court...
... The judge had presided over the first and second trials. On the application for a stay, having reviewed all the evidence in the second trial together with the submissions of the parties, she concluded that it was not a retrial of the first. She took as her starting point, without objection, the fact that a retrial must be a further trial on the same key issues and with the same parties. She said that, having heard both trials and considered the new case against the appellant, "I am of the clear opinion that this was not a retrial but a fresh trial on much wider allegations. The event of 19 December 2018 undoubtedly was a significant event in the case against Mr Ashaoui but was not the only evidence against him. And … if one excludes from consideration his involvement on that night, there would remain a case to answer in respect of the new indictment" based upon the evidence that she had heard...
... The judge's finding that the second trial was not a retrial was plainly open to her on the evidence that she had heard during the first and second trials and which were not undermined by what occurred during the third trial. We are satisfied that she was right to decide that the second trial was not a retrial of the first. She was better placed than anybody to reach that finding. It follows that the third trial was not a second retrial and that the judge was right not to stay it as an abuse of the process. We have also asked ourselves the broader question: were the interests of justice best served by this third trial? We are satisfied that they were. These were serious offences; it was in the public interest that those responsible be convicted. It was not oppressive of the defendant to allow a second trial of the wider conspiracy. The trial was not an abuse of the process of the court. The appeal is dismissed.
Director of Public Prosecutions v Eastburn [2023] EWHC 1063 (Admin)
Parliament Square has been the scene of many protests and demonstrations. The central part of the square is a pedestrian area, mainly grass, known as Parliament Square Gardens. This is surrounded by busy roads on all sides, one of which is Parliament Street. On 2 September 2020, Cathy Eastburn sat down in Parliament Street as part of an Extinction Rebellion protest. She was told by a police officer that this was unlawful because a direction had been given under section 14 of the Public Order Act 1986 that the assembly had to be confined to Parliament Square Gardens. She remained seated in Parliament Street. She was arrested and charged with the offence of failing to comply with the direction. On 25 January 2022, she was tried at the City of London Magistrate's Court before Judge (DDJ) Bone, who acquitted her. The Director of Public Prosecutions appeals against that acquittal by way of case stated...
... This passage shows that in the view of the Supreme Court s 14 of the 1986 Act is an example of an offence-creating statute where the ingredients of the offence in themselves ensure the compatibility of a conviction with the defendant's rights under Articles 10 and 11. There is no requirement for the prosecution to prove that a conviction would be a proportionate interference with those rights. That is decisive of the present appeal. Having found the ingredients of the offence proved, the judge should have convicted the Respondent without further consideration. His finding that she had caused very little disruption can properly be reflected in the level of any penalty to be imposed. For these reasons we allow the DPP's appeal and remit the case to the City of London Magistrates' Court (to be heard by DDJ Bone if he is available) with a direction to convict.
International
'EU aims to harmonise criminal laws across bloc to fight corruption'
The EU executive wants to harmonise criminal laws against corruption across the bloc, as part of a wide-ranging drive to tackle bribery, abuse of office and illicit enrichment. Under a proposed draft directive, misappropriation of funds, trading influence, abuse of office, illicit enrichment and obstruction of justice in corruption cases would be harmonised criminal offences. Bribery is currently the only corruption offence criminalised at EU level.
The proposal would establish common definitions of corruption crimes in an effort to make it easier for police to cooperate in cross-border cases, a step seen as crucial in tackling organised crime, as most large criminal gangs are active in three or more countries. Not all EU member states criminalise all forms of corrupt behaviour – illicit enrichment is an offence in only eight countries, a gap that leaves many EU countries falling short of UN-defined standards, according to EU officials...
Other
'Call for evidence launched on community sentences'
The inquiry will relate to community sentences. When Courts issue a “community order”, they set out one or more requirements imposed on an adult offender, who will serve their sentence in the community. The requirements are activities selected from a statutory list of 16 options. Most community sentences must entail a punitive and a rehabilitative component. Considerations related to restorative justice and to other sentences spent in the community, such as suspended custodial sentences or being released on parole, may occasionally be of relevance. However, the Committee would like to concentrate on community orders specifically.
Topics the committee is seeking evidence on include:
- Trends in the use of community sentences (downwards or otherwise)
- Barriers to the use of community sentences
- Best practices in the delivery of community sentences
- Disparities in the availability of community sentences across England and Wales
- Attitudes of sentencers towards community sentences
- Cooperation between the Probation Service and its partners, including the NHS and private or third-sector organisations involved in the delivery of community sentences.
The Committee invites interested individuals and organisations to submit written evidence by 15 June.
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