News
AGFS Offer - No Returns Suspended
After consultation and negotiation with the CBA, the MoJ has made an offer to amend the new AGFS. As a result, “no returns” has been suspended, but the advice to refuse work covered by a new Representation Order is still in effect.
Details of the Offer:
- Extra funding of £8m for the fraud, drug and child sex cases that lose out under the new scheme.
- A 1% increase in AGFS from April 2019 (c.2.5m);
- Further funding for approximately £4.5m more for juniors.
- This would equate to £15million extra investment.
"Under a year in jail must be last resort" says David Gauke
David Gauke’s message to judges and magistrates is that only in exceptional circumstances should people be sent to prison for 12 months or less. He urges those passing sentences to consider alternatives to short jail terms, even when they are confronted with a persistent offender who has committed several crimes.
'Berlinah Wallace: Woman who threw sulphuric acid at boyfriend is cleared of murder'
An acid attacker whose ex-boyfriend ended his life with euthanasia because of the debilitating injuries he suffered after she threw the toxic substance at him, has been acquitted of murder.
The case was subject to an appeal against a terminating ruling (see below), on the issue of causation.
The Courts and Tribunals (Judiciary and Functions of Staff) Bill
The Courts and Tribunals (Judiciary and Functions of Staff) Bill will increase efficiency by allowing greater flexibility to deploy the right judge to the right case.
Appropriately qualified and experienced court and tribunal staff - authorised by the judiciary, and working under judicial supervision – will also be able to deal with routine matters, freeing up judges’ time to focus their expertise on matters that need it most.
The text of the Bill is available here.
Police Pursuit Consultation
The government is consulting on a separate test for police drivers that would require:
an officer to drive to the standard of a careful and competent police driver of a similar level of training and skill
that the driving tactics employed, including any exemptions from road traffic legislation, such as speed limits, or contact with a suspect vehicle, are authorised appropriately and are both necessary and proportionate
Cases
R v BW [2018] EWCA Crim 690
It would, as the prosecution say, seem an odd result, if a defendant who paralysed one victim but not another in identical circumstances (so the second could take their own life, but the first could only do so through the intervention of a third party) would be legally responsible for the death of the second victim but not the first. In the event we consider that the jury could conclude on the facts as they were here that the acts of Mr van Dongen and the doctors were not sensibly divisible; that the doctors' (lawful) conduct in carrying out with their hands what he could not carry out with his own was but one link in the chain of events instigated by the defendant and, notwithstanding the intervening act of Mr van Dongen and/or the doctors, the defendant's conduct could fairly be said to have made a significant contribution to Mr van Dongen's death. We have not lost sight of the issue of self-preservation and the fact that in none of the cases mentioned in Pagett was the victim's response one intended to bring about death (however grave the risk taken that it might do so). But in the light of the decision in Dear the seeking of death (suicide in that case) as a response to horrific injuries does not preclude the jury finding that the defendant's conduct made a significant contribution to Mr van Dongen's death.
Obscurity
Carrying a Ladder on a Footway
Carrying a ladder upon any footway, except for the purpose of loading or unloading any cart or carriage, or of crossing the footway, is contrary to section 54 of the Metropolitan Police Act 1839.