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
'Justice Secretary confirms plans for Helen’s Law'
Murderers who refuse to disclose the location of a victim’s body may be denied parole under a new law set out by the Justice Secretary David Gauke.
Named after Helen McCourt – murdered in 1988 – whose killer has never revealed her whereabouts, ‘Helen’s law’ will place a legal duty on the Parole Board to reflect the failure to disclose the site of a victim’s remains when considering a prisoner’s suitability for release.
'Killers and drug dealers to have a clean slate in search for jobs'
Criminals including some killers, sex offenders and drug dealers will have their records wiped under plans to stop the stigma of a conviction from “hanging over the rest of their lives”. David Gauke, the justice secretary, wants to scrap a rule that means people sentenced to prison terms of more than four years have to disclose their conviction to a prospective employer for the rest of their life.
Convictions will only be considered spent if criminals do not reoffend for an extended period of time. The more serious the sentence, the longer they will be expected to go without reoffending before being allowed to avoid disclosing the criminal record.
New PTPH Form
I am happy to report that a revised PTPH form (PTPH2) for all Crown Court cases will soon be implemented. The new form is likely to be in use in about 5 weeks’ time when the technical work has been completed.
The new PTPH 2 online form provides improvements in content and functionality for DCS cases. I expect that those familiar with the existing PTPH form will find the transition to PTPH2 straightforward and, hopefully, appreciate the changes.
'Tommy Robinson jailed for contempt of court'
Tommy Robinson was given a nine-month prison sentence at the Old Bailey on Thursday for committing contempt of court. Judge Dame Victoria Sharp told the EDL founder that the time he previously spent behind bars for the contempt will be taken into account, reducing his sentence to 19 weeks – of which he will serve half before being released.
The decision on penalty (i.e. sentencing remarks) is available here.
Dangerous Driving Identified By Drone
The Met Police will use a drone in a crackdown on dangerous drivers. The unmanned aerial vehicle will target "road users engaged in dangerous driving, such as racing, that could potentially put others at risk", the force said.
A spokesman said: "We can confirm that a police drone is being used to support the Roads and Traffic Policing Command activity as part of the Vision Zero week of action to reduce deaths and injury on London's roads. The drone is being used to support gathering of intelligence and evidence."
Cases
Reasons: Attorney General -v- Stephen Yaxley-Lennon AKA Tommy Robinson
Our conclusions are as follows. The respondent committed a contempt of court on 25 May 2018 in three respects: first, by breaching a reporting restriction imposed under s 4(2) of the Contempt of Court Act 1981, in the case of R v Akhtar; secondly, by live streaming a video from outside the public entrance to the court, the content of which gave rise to a substantial risk that the course of justice in that case would be seriously impeded; and thirdly, by aggressively confronting and filming some of the defendants in that case as they arrived at court, thereby directly interfering with the course of justice. In our judgment, the respondent’s conduct in each of those respects amounted to a serious interference with the administration of justice. These are our reasons.
R v Torpey (On the Application Of) v DPP [2019] EWHC 1804 (Admin)
The claimant is the mother of Lewis Johnson who died on 9 February 2016 as a result of a road traffic accident while being pursued by officers of the Metropolitan Police Service ("MPS"). An application for judicial review is brought to challenge a decision of 2 October 2018 by a reviewing lawyer at the Crown Prosecution Service ("CPS") on behalf of the Director of Public Prosecutions ("DPP").
We have found this a troubling case. A police pursuit took place over a period of approximately four minutes. CCTV footage and the reports of those, other than the reviewing lawyer, identify dangerous driving on the part of the moped and the Officer who was the pursuing driver in the police BMW. A death has occurred. The family of Lewis Johnson are concerned to understand why it is no prosecution for any offence will take place in respect of the driving of the Officer. The Officer has been a serving officer for many years: we do not underestimate his own anxiety in respect of any possible charges arising out of this pursuit which resulted in a fatality...
Accordingly, we quash the decision of the CPS reviewing lawyer made on 2 October 2018. We remit this matter to the defendant in order for another review decision by a different lawyer to be made in accordance with the judgment of this court.
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