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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
'The China spy case evidence raises more questions than it answers'
Sir Keir Starmer has published a series of witness statements given by the deputy national security adviser to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in the collapsed China spying case. The prime minister had hoped publishing the evidence would draw a line under the saga, which has dogged his government for weeks. A key allegation was that the government refused, in its evidence to the CPS, to describe Beijing as a threat to Britain’s national security, leading the case against the two alleged spies to collapse...
The CPS in September unexpectedly dropped charges against the two alleged spies, Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry. They both deny any wrongdoing...
'More to be done to support domestic abuse victims says Prosecution watchdog'
CPS must do more to consider building strong domestic abuse cases from the outset so that they can proceed without victims having to give evidence at trial says HMCPSI. His Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate has published a report today on 16 October 2025 following an inspection of CPS’s use of evidence-led prosecutions in domestic abuse cases. In some cases, either where the victim withdraws support or to avoid vulnerable victims having to go to court unnecessarily, prosecutors can proceed with evidence-led prosecutions. In such cases prosecutors can rely on other evidence such as 999 calls, injuries seen by others and telephone evidence, to proceed with a case without calling the victim to give evidence at trial. Prosecutors in all cases should consider all reasonable lines of enquiry to build strong cases from the outset to give the best possible chance of proceeding as a ‘victimless’ prosecution irrespective of whether a victim is supportive of the prosecution.
Today’s report is an assessment of progress since four recommendations were made to the CPS in 2020. Inspectors found that progress had been made to implement two of the four recommendations made in 2020. CPS has successfully rolled out comprehensive and improved domestic abuse training to most prosecutors. There is also improved partnership working between police and CPS through the joint justice plan to promote awareness of evidence-led prosecutions. However, inspectors found that CPS need to improve the quality of their legal decision-making where evidence-led prosecutions are a viable option. Two recommendations were assessed as not being achieved...
'Landmark survey reveals crime victims doubtful about getting justice'
One of the biggest ever surveys undertaken with victims of crime has revealed worryingly low levels of confidence in the criminal justice system – with only four in 10 victims confident they would get justice by reporting a crime. The survey, commissioned by the victims' commissioner, received over 6,500 responses.
Only 51% of respondents were confident that the criminal justice was fair, 46% were confident that the criminal justice system was effective, and 42% were confident they would receive justice by reporting a crime. Confidence levels were particularly low for bisexual, gay or lesbian respondents, women and disabled people. Half of victims lacked confidence in the Crown Prosecution Service to effectively prosecute the alleged perpetrator...
'New Crown Courtroom officially opens in Hereford'
A new Crown courtroom has officially opened at Hereford Justice Centre, marking a significant milestone in restoring court capacity in the region following the closure of Hereford’s historic Shire Hall. The opening ceremony held yesterday (13 October 2025) marked the completion of extensive conversion works at the Magistrates’ Court building into a joint magistrates’ and Crown Court facility. Hereford becomes one of a small number of courts across England and Wales that hears cases from all jurisdictions. Since 28 February 2025, the opening of this new Crown Court has enabled 14 multi-day and multi-week trials to be heard in Hereford. Without this additional facility, these would likely have been adjourned due to lack of court time in Worcester Crown Court. The Senior Presiding Judge attended the official opening event...
This is one of two new Crown courtrooms introduced across the region this year, following the official opening of Redditch Crown Court in January this year... Jury trials have not been held in the Hereford area since June 2020, when the roof collapsed at Shire Hall. COVID-19 restrictions then contributed to further backlogs of trials awaiting dates. Since then, Crown court trials had been held in Worcester, with some Crown Court sentencing hearings taking place at Hereford’s magistrates’ court...
International
'Fighting cybercrime: EU to sign UN Convention on cybercrime'
Today, the Council adopted a decision authorising the European Commission and member states to sign a United Nations Convention against cybercrime. The Convention is an international treaty which puts in place common rules at global level to enhance cooperation on cybercrime and the exchange of evidence in electronic form for the purpose of criminal investigations or proceedings...
A key aspect of the Convention is the harmonisation between participating countries of the criminalisation of conduct of certain cyber-related offences. This means that all countries commit to make certain conduct (e.g. IT fraud or illegal interception) a criminal offence in their national legislation. The Convention will also give an impetus to criminalise acts related to online child sexual abuse material, grooming as well as the non-consensual dissemination of intimate images. These offences are already criminalised at EU level but not yet at a wider international level...
Other
'Inside Britain’s broken justice machine'
Leaky ceilings, mounting backlogs and burned-out barristers — can the government fix the courts?...
'27 years after conviction, he hopes he'll still be alive by the time he's cleared his name'
A Post Office Capture victim says delays in the justice system have left him fearing he may never live to see his name cleared. Steve Marston was convicted in 1998 of stealing nearly £80,000 from his branch, based on faulty computer software called Capture that pre-dated the infamous Horizon scandal. His case has been with the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) for nearly a year, but has still not been referred to the Court of Appeal...