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 Legal Aid Review
Having listened carefully to concerns raised by the criminal defence professions, and in light of the wider reforms that are already beginning to transform how our criminal justice system operates, we believe it is the right time to think more widely about the future of the criminal legal aid fee schemes.
While the review is wide-ranging, we are committed to delivering a final report, including any recommendations, towards the end of the summer 2020. We will also seek to share emerging findings with the professions throughout the course of the review.
Bloody Sunday: 'Soldier F faces murder charges'
A former British soldier faces murder charges over the killing of two people on Bloody Sunday in Londonderry in 1972.
The Public Prosecution Service said there was enough evidence to prosecute Soldier F for the murders of James Wray and William McKinney.
£100m Police Funding for Violent Crime
A further £100 million funding will be made available to police forces in the worst affected areas in England and Wales for knife and violent crime.
The funding will also be invested in Violence Reduction Units, bringing together a range of agencies including health, education, social services and others, to develop a multi-agency approach in preventing knife crime altogether. The units will be based on models used in Glasgow where homicide rates fell by 54% from 2006/07 to 2015/16.
GPS Guidance on Mental Health
Guidance for prosecutors on dealing with defendants with mental health issues has been updated to reflect growing understanding of different conditions, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has announced today.
A consultation has now been launched so that the views of the public, charities, and health and legal professionals can be considered further before the guidance is finalised.
The revised guidance can be found here.
Bar Council Responds to CPS Salary Increase
The Bar Council is pleased to see that extra money has been found to improve the pay of Crown Prosecution Service lawyers. This, however, is in stark contrast to the failure to increase the levels of pay for the self-employed members of the Bar who provide an essential public service prosecuting the vast majority of the serious cases tried in the Crown Court.
The pay scheme under which self-employed barristers are remunerated has had no increases since its inception in 2001 (and has therefore been eroded by inflation) and actually suffered a five per cent cut in 2012.
Cases
R v Toner [2019] EWCA Crim 447
The repeal of Rule 9 of the 1971 Rules and its replacement by CrPR 31.2(4) has in our view removed the technical barriers to joinder in appropriate cases. We consider that in a case where the evidence on one count would be properly admissible on the other as evidence of bad character it is difficult to argue that the defendant would be "prejudiced or embarrassed in his defence" by having both counts or sets of counts on the same indictment. The judge is not required to order severance of the indictment and separate trials unless on their proper construction the rules compel it, or there is some other factor (such as the need to avoid overloading the indictment or over-burdening the jury) making separate trials desirable.
As the single judge observed, the case of R v D, P and U [2013] 1 WLR 676 is clear authority that where a defendant is charged with any prohibited sexual activity involving children, evidence that he had viewed or collected child pornography is capable of being admissible pursuant to sections 101(1)(d) and 103(1) of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 as demonstrating a sexual interest in children: although, as Hughes LJ observed at paragraph 19: "It will not always be so. There may be a sufficient difference between what is viewed and what is alleged to have been done for there to be no plausible link. It may be right to exclude the evidence as a matter of discretion, particularly if its probative value is marginal. But that it is capable being admitted under gateway (d) we entertain no doubt."
Other
EU Report on "Strengthening victims' rights: from compensation to reparation"
The report of Special Adviser Joëlle Milquet on “Strengthening victims’ rights: from compensation to reparation” tackles the main problems that victims of crime currently face when claiming compensation in European Union. The report takes a holistic view to compensation and is not limited to the pecuniary aspects of compensation or the compensation procedure stricto sensu.
Sponsored
Crime Fees - Free AGFS Calculator for iOS and Android
Crime Fees enables criminal barristers in England and Wales to easily calculate defence advocate fees under the new April 2018 AGFS (Scheme 10), and also under the proposed new Scheme 11 (currently under consultation).
No need to compare complex fee tables. Simply select the type of hearing and offence, set the number of trial days, and the app will tell you the fee.
Add each fee in the case to the basket and save for convenient reference until you have been paid.
Every permutation of case under the AGFS is catered for - the 3 advocate types, the 19 types of hearing, the 17 offence bands, and the 915 offences.