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Delay & Alleged Historic Offending

Delay & Alleged Historic Offending. It is now commonplace for us to be asked to deal with cases where a person is accused of a crime, most commonly of a sexual nature, which is said to have occurred many decades earlier. Not surprisingly, those accused will wonder how they can be expected to properly defend […]

Proceeds of Crime – Confiscation Reform on the Cards

Proceeds of Crime – Confiscation Reform on the Cards. The Law Commission has published new reforms to overhaul the system for recovering the proceeds of criminal activities. The reforms, which are the culmination of a Home Office-commissioned review, would enhance enforcement powers and could lead to the recovery of millions of pounds of additional funds […]

Review of Unduly Lenient Sentences – Latest Figures Published

The Attorney General has the power to refer to the Court of Appeal sentences for certain offences that they believe to be unduly lenient. This is sometimes called the unduly lenient sentence scheme. The scheme was established in the Criminal Justice Act 1988 and came into force in 1989. The purpose of the scheme is […]

Statues, Protest & Human Rights

Statues, Protest & Human Rights. On 5th January 2022 at the Crown Court sitting at Bristol, four defendants were found not guilty of criminal damage even though they had readily admitted to removing a statue (of Edward Colston) from its plinth and tipping it into the harbour. Following the acquittals, the Attorney General referred a point […]

Police powers: Strip searching

Police powers: Strip searching. As part of a standard stop and search, police officers can require those being searched to remove an outer coat, jacket, or gloves. Officers also have legal powers to require individuals to remove more clothing. This is commonly referred to as “strip-searching”. Strip searches are recognised as a highly intrusive interaction with […]

Confiscation and Proportionality

Confiscation and Proportionality. Confiscation remains one of the most challenging areas of criminal law, confusing not only clients but also many lawyers with insufficient expertise in this area. In a recent case, the Supreme Court considered the situation where a person lies to secure a job but goes on to perform excellently in that role. […]

The Ryan Giggs Trial

The Ryan Giggs Trial. Former footballer Ryan Giggs is on trial for a number of offences including “using controlling and coercive behaviour”. We of course would never comment on an ongoing trial, but in this article, we explore further the elements of this offence. So, what is the offence? Controlling or coercive behaviour does not relate […]

New Hunting Offences

New Hunting Offences. Sections 63 and 64 of The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 came in to force on 1st August 2022. It created two new offences of trespass with intent to pursue hares (s.63 PCSCA 2022) and being equipped to search for or pursue hares (s.64 PCSCA 2022). The s 63 offence (Trespass […]

Mercy Killings

Mercy Killings. A man who slit his wife’s throat “in an act of love” and tried to kill himself has been found not guilty of murder after a jury accepted the couple had made a suicide pact. Graham Mansfield, 73, from Hale in Greater Manchester, was given a suspended sentence of two years after being […]

Creating an Offence of Public Sexual Harassment

Creating an offence of public sexual harassment. Ministers undertook that by Parliament’s 2022 summer recess the government would launch a consultation on whether a specific offence for public sexual harassment (sexual harassment in public spaces) should be created. In the nationally representative survey of 2,000 people which formed part of the Call for Evidence, 44% of […]