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
Probation Renationalised
Justice Secretary David Gauke has today (16 May 2019) set out his blueprint for the future of probation – bringing all offender management under the National Probation Service (NPS) and building on existing work to bring down reoffending.
It is now vital to take time to finalise these proposals, in order to get the changes right, and the Department will work closely with providers, stakeholders and staff to finalise these proposals, ready for the new model to come in to effect in Spring 2021.
Military Prosecution Time-Bar Proposed
British troops and veterans will be given stronger legal protections against prosecution, Defence Secretary Penny Mordaunt has said.
The new protections apply to actions carried out in the course of duty more than a decade ago. In these cases, there would be a statutory presumption against prosecution for current or former armed forces personnel. But in exceptional circumstances, such as where compelling new evidence had emerged, the protections could be set aside.
'Use of facial recognition tech dangerously irresponsible'
Several UK police forces have been trialling controversial new facial recognition technology, including automated systems which attempt to identify the faces of people in real time as they pass a camera.
Documents from the police, Home Office and university researchers show that police are aware that ethnicity can have an impact on such systems, but have failed on several occasions to test this.
New Victims’ Commissioner Appointed
Dame Vera Baird has been appointed the new Victims’ Commissioner and will take over the role from Baroness Newlove in mid-June 2019.
Export Ban of Lady Chatterley's Lover
Ministers have blocked the export of the copy of Lady Chatterley's Lover used by the judge in the obscenity trial over the DH Lawrence's novel.
Sir Laurence Byrne presided over the trial and his copy of the provocative novel - annotated by both the judge and his wife with comments including "coarse" and "vulgar" - has been sold.
Cases
R v Kuddus [2019] EWCA Crim 837
Using the same two examples of this case and Honey Rose, the foreseeable risk for the purposes of gross negligence manslaughter is that, armed with notice that a particular customer or patient falls into the category which the system (or statute) was designed to deal with, a reasonable person in the position of the restaurateur or optometrist would, at the time of breach of duty, have foreseen an obvious and serious risk of death. It is in those circumstances that the jury would have to go on to consider whether the negligent breach of duty was 'gross' within the meaning of that term defined by the authorities.
The difficulty with the approach in this case was that it was not suggested that the appellant was armed with notice that Megan fell into the category of those in respect of whom a reasonable person in the position of the appellant could have foreseen an obvious and serious risk of death by serving the food that he did. He knew nothing of the allergy which she had declared. In those circumstances, the conviction for gross negligence manslaughter cannot stand.
Serafin v Malkiewicz & Ors [2019] EWCA Civ 852
It is a fundamental tenet of the administration of law that all those who appear before our courts are treated fairly and that judges act - and are seen to act - fairly and impartially throughout a trial.
On numerous occasions, the Judge appears not only to have descended to the arena, cast off the mantle of impartiality and taken up the cudgels of cross-examination, but also to have used language which was threatening, overbearing and, frankly, bullying. One is left with the regrettable impression of a Judge who, if not partisan, developed an animus towards the Claimant.
Obscurity
Exporting Lady Chatterley's Lover
Being knowingly concerned in the export or attempted export of the annotated copy of Lady Chatterley's Lover would be contrary to section 69 of the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979.
Sponsored
Crime Fees 3 - Crown Court Fees Calculator for iOS and Android
Crime Fees enables criminal barristers in England and Wales to easily calculate Crown Court advocate fees for both prosecution and defence. All fee schemes are covered: the CPS Scheme C, the new December 2018 AGFS (Scheme 11), the April 2018 AGFS (Scheme 10), and the old 2012 AGFS (Scheme 9).