Nearly four in five prisons do not have enough officers trained to deal with riots as part of so-called “Tornado” squads, despite rising violence and disorder behind bars, The Independent can reveal. With the prisons crisis a major concern ahead of the general election, prison officers responded to the revelations by accusing Rishi Sunak’s government […]
Scandalous’ Riot Prison officer shortage Read More »
The Lord Chancellor is triggering an emergency measure, Operation Early Dawn, to deal with the worsening problem of the prison population. Details are somewhat lacking but it appears to be an extension of early release and other measures, but there is a particular measure affecting Magistrates\’ courts in England (but not Wales at the moment).
Prison System at Breaking Point Read More »
The significant increase in reported cases of Cuckooing, has not gone unnoticed to the Home Secretary Mr James Cleverly. Cuckooing, is when a criminal gang takes over a vulnerable persons home to commit specific crimes. In a recent statement released by the Home Secretary, Mr Cleverly highlighted the link between those Cuckooing gangs and County
Home Secretary to Crack Down on ‘Cuckooing’ Crime Read More »
At least 56 miscarriages of justice have occurred in cases in England and Wales where the jury was split, according to a charity, which says jury unanimity should be reintroduced to safeguard against wrongful criminal convictions. The research by Appeal, the miscarriage of justice charity, says majority verdicts “arguably dilute the principle of reasonable doubt” and have
On reading the new version of Judiciary’s Better Case Management hand book, it appears that all bail applications will no longer be made with a defendant being brought to court. The section of the new handbook relating to bail applications reads that remote hearings will be the default position for bail applications in a bid
Applications for Bail Now to be Made Remotely Read More »
New research reveals that murderers are now getting ‘substantially increased’ minimum prison sentences fuelling a trend of sentence inflation across other serious crimes, such as manslaughter and sexual offences. According to the report by the Sentencing Academy written by Dr Richard Martin of LSE, average minimum terms for murder have soared from 13 years in 2000 to
60% increase in murder sentences over last two decades fuelling ‘sentence inflation’ Read More »
This week the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) announced it will re-examine almost 5,500 previously rejected cases to see if DNA breakthroughs can be made. This represents a significant step forward for those of us who know that the statutory miscarriage of justice review body has denied justice to scores of wrongly convicted individuals, of which Andrew
In recent times the Serious Fraud Office has come under considerable scrutiny and criticism due to the collapse of several lengthy and hugely costly investigations, notably the 2023 collapse of the multiple million pound, 10 year investigation in to G4S tagging arm and the dropping of charges against three former directors at the company The
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) Read More »
Magistrates are demanding a major overhaul to a controversial fast-track justice system, revealing they feel rushed when convicting defendants and want changes to protect the elderly, the sick, and the vulnerable. An Evening Standard investigation has uncovered a litany of shocking criminal cases in the Single Justice Procedure (SJP), including elderly pensioners, cancer patients, and people with
Single Justice Procedure: Magistrates demand changes to controversial fast-track courts Read More »
The issue of when a prosecution could lawfully commence for a person issued with a fixed penalty notice (FPN) was considered recently in the case of R (Michli) v Westminster Magistrates Court [2024] EWHC 559 (Admin) The Court was asked to consider when the Crown Prosecution Service were time barred from beginning a prosecution after
Fixed Penalty Notices Read More »
