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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
'Post Office under criminal investigation for potential fraud over Horizon scandal'
The Post Office is under criminal investigation over “potential fraud offences” committed during the Horizon scandal, the Metropolitan police have confirmed for the first time. Officers are “investigating potential fraud offences arising out of these prosecutions”, for example “monies recovered from sub-postmasters [operators] as a result of prosecutions or civil actions”, Scotland Yard said on Friday evening. It is not clear whether the investigation relates to individual staff members or the Post Office as a corporate entity.
Between 1999 and 2015, more than 700 post office branch managers were wrongly handed criminal convictions after faulty Horizon accounting software made it appear as though money was missing from their outlets. Under the terms of their contracts, operators were liable for the financial losses and the Post Office demanded they repay the money or face closure, prosecution or a civil claim. Hundreds were jailed or left bankrupted and at least four people took their own lives. It is not known how much cash was paid back for imaginary shortfalls but so far £151m has been paid in compensation. Operators claimed that tens of millions of pounds wrongly clawed back went into Post Office profits. The Met is already investigating two former Fujitsu experts, who were witnesses in the trials, for perjury and perverting the course of justice. Fujitsu is the company behind the Horizon software...
'Government exceeds target as over 2,100 more county lines closed'
More than 2,000 county lines have been dismantled in the last 18 months, as the government hits its target of closing thousands of these criminal networks early. Data published this month shows the ambitious three-year target, made in the government’s 10-year drug strategy, has been achieved in just a year and a half, with dedicated police taskforces from the County Lines Programme arresting senior line holders and breaking the gangs that terrorise communities.
Between April 2022 and September this year, over 4,000 arrests have been made, whilst 4,800 vulnerable people caught up in these vile operations have been offered support to turn their lives around. Between April and September 2023, over 700 lines were dismantled, 1,300 arrests made and 1,600 victims were supported...
Joint Enterprise Private Members Bill
Two sisters have spent the last 11 years in prison as convicted murderers - despite not being physically responsible or even present at the crime scene. Now their father is hoping a proposed change in the law could eventually free them. Maureen and Kelly Smith, along with three men, were found guilty of murdering Maureen's former partner David Corridon, who was stabbed six times during a raid on his home in the Norris Green area of Liverpool in 2012. They were convicted under the law of joint enterprise, which allows for an accused person to be convicted even if they did not inflict the fatal blow...
The Jimmy McGovern drama Common highlighted the issue of joint enterprise and inspired Liverpool Riverside MP Kim Johnson to use a private members' bill to reform the law... Her Private Members Bill would amend the 1861 Accessories and Abettors Act "to provide that criminal liability only applies to a person who directly commits, or who makes a significant contribution to, a crime"... Ms Johnson's bill will get its second reading on 2 February. A statement from the Ministry of Justice said: "The government recognises the importance of the law on joint enterprise and the consequences it has for defendants and their families, as well as on victims and their loved ones. We have no current plans to amend the law in this area but will consider carefully the text of Kim Johnson's bill when published."
International
'Oscar Pistorius release: A reminder of South Africa's femicide problem'
Should men who murder women be entitled to the privilege of parole? This question around the early release of inmates, albeit under certain conditions, has been raised in South Africa following the freeing on parole of former Paralympic champion Oscar Pistorius. This was after he had served half of his sentence for the murder of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, on Valentine's Day in 2013.
South Africa has a particular problem with femicide and violence against women. In 2020, a woman died at the hands of her intimate partner on average every eight hours, according to a study by the University of the Free State.In 2019, South Africa ranked among the five countries with the highest rates of the murder of women, according to the United Nations. This is why campaigners think an exception should be made for the perpetrators of these crimes to the country's normal rules around early release...
Other
'Mr Bates vs The Post Office cast | Meet the characters in ITV drama'
New ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office dives into one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British legal history. Based on a true story, the four-part drama shows how subpostmasters and mistresses for the Post Office were wrongly accused of theft, fraud and false accounting after a defective IT system called Horizon caused money to seemingly vanish from their tills...
'Drug prevention policies and landscape across the UK'
The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) has been commissioned by the government to provide advice into drug prevention for young people, supporting the government’s wider 10-Year National Drugs Strategy. The ACMD Prevention Standing Committee has therefore been established to provide advice to the government and aims to publish a report by Spring 2024 consisting of a whole-system response embedded with national and local measures.
As part of the evidence collection for this report, the ACMD seeks to gather insight into current government-led drug prevention measures and the drug prevention landscape across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. This understanding of prevention activities across the home nations will support the ACMD when making possible recommendations regarding effective interventions and service models to promote drug prevention and harm reduction...