http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/Having been many years a magistrate with a long awareness of the declining freedoms enjoyed by the ordinary citizen and a corresponding fear of the big brother state`s ever increasing encroachment on civil liberties I hope that my personal observations within these general parameters will be of interest to those with an open mind. There is no intention to undermine public confidence in the judiciary or to impugn the integrity of any member of the judiciary or the judiciary in general unless knowledge on a particular individual or episode is already in the public domain.en-EUhttp://backend.userland.com/rss092http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/http://data5.blog.de/design/preview/7c/6bedaef36da90f9f299dd61b05f139_160x200.jpg <p><img src="http://data8.blog.de/media/894/7044894_c243be4211_s.jpeg" alt="WORDS FAIL ME">One would have thought that a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/cross-government-reforrms-benefit-charities-and-mutuals">document</a> issued today on behalf of The Rt Hon Nick Clegg MP, Nick Hurd MP and Jeremy Wright MP with the word “<strong>reforms</strong>” in its title would at least have had the spelling of the word “REFORMS” correct. One would have been mistaken. </p> <p>It seems to this blogger that commentary on the document is unnecessary. Read it for yourself and see if you agree.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/05/21/speechless-16037023/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p> http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/05/21/speechless-16037023/Tue, 21 May 2013 12:36:56 +0200 <p><img src="http://data8.blog.de/media/862/7044862_ece0889ac0_m.jpeg" alt="VOLUNTEERS">Magistrates are unpaid volunteers. Most, in my experience, value their independence. Most would not be willing to accept payment in lieu of that independence. Many (most?) echo my own view that Her Majesty`s Courts and Tribunal Service in its dealings with magistrates considers us as unpaid employees. In other words that we are as pawns on the justice chessboard to be manoeuvred at the whim of those civil servants; all 26 of them, known as Justices` Clerks. Indeed I have heard tell of such an official telling an annual bench meeting of J.P.s what it can and cannot debate. Be that as it may it seems that that attitude is spreading to other organisations within our justice system. </p> <p>A colleague who spies for me in another part of the country has been invited with his bench colleagues to one or all of a series of meetings sponsored by one of the newly established Pay By Results organisations now running probation services. Nothing odd about that and even refreshments are being offered as an inducement. The fly in this innocuous ointment is that the meetings are all scheduled to begin at 8.45a.m. Now for employed individuals in an organisation this is perfectly reasonable timetabling in bringing knowledge up to date but we are not employees. Many, including myself in past years, have the school run or other obligations early morning. Those (the majority) in full time employment already in many instances must negotiate their sitting time with employers who are showing increasing reluctance in these straightened times to sanction additional time off. Those who are already rota`d to sit on these mornings will decide if they wish to commit to a lengthened day and an earlier rise. Some will and some will not. For the remainder whose leisure time will be subject to further imposition attendance figures will tell all. </p> <p>This radical innovation has been initiated without any prior consultation with members of the bench. One would have thought that a simple on line questionnaire to elicit opinion on timetabling such gatherings would have been time well spent by organisations whose watchword is profit. Indeed the cost of such an exercise would be virtually zero. Perhaps this is also an exercise in power and control. After all if J.P.s can be shunted around in this manner at this time future authority will come easy. If this training breakfast results in a dismal turn out the penny will have dropped: treat us like donkeys or mules and we will be just as stubborn as those four legged creatures. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/05/21/volunteers-or-unpaid-employees-16036923/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p> http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/05/21/volunteers-or-unpaid-employees-16036923/Tue, 21 May 2013 12:18:12 +0200 <p><img src="http://data8.blog.de/media/319/7043319_a3cd0336bb_m.jpeg" alt="NATIONAL STEREOTYPES">There are some aspects of a society that seem for many to define that society. Swiss trains always run on time; indeed they run like clockwork. Denmark and the Danes could be regarded as tolerant, easygoing, polymorphously perverse, and crazy about bicycles. German industry is so efficient; German cars continue to be in demand as their price rises. French have been described as cheese eating surrender monkeys which is as inaccurate as describing the Irish as drunken navvies although it perhaps could be argued that there are historical precedents for these derogatory opinions. Take almost any country in the world and there will be a national stereotype to be admired and others to be disparaged. A stereotypical criticism of England could be that its streets are always full of litter. And who`s to argue the inaccuracy of that observation? I have posted <a href="http://thejusticeofthepeace.blog.co.uk/2010/05/10/litter-louts-8554879/">here</a> and <a href="http://thejusticeofthepeace.blog.co.uk/2011/04/05/do-fines-for-littering-keep-the-streets-clean-10953152/">here</a> on litter. </p> <p>Generally <a href="http://archive.defra.gov.uk/environment/quality/local/legislation/cnea/documents/fixed-penalty-guidance.pdf">The Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005</a> which came into force on 7th June 2005 is the vehicle empowering local councils to issue fixed penalty notices of £50 for those who transgress. c30,000 such notices were issued in the year ended March 2009. For those who do not pay the fine a summons from the local magistrates` courts is the next step in enforcement. The offender is brought to court for non payment of the fine; not for the original offence and can decide to plead guilty and offer what mitigation s/he can resulting in court costs, victim surcharge and a fine not exceeding £2,500 calculated according to her/his means and previous offending (if any) of a similar nature. For those who deny the offence a trial will be scheduled where the defendant can argue her/his case fully protected by legal procedures. Convictions after trial do not enjoy fines` discounts offered to those pleading guilty. </p> <p>But all too often, as with minor motoring offences, offenders ignore all correspondence in the hope, rarely materialising, that the matter will just go away. And that was how, presumably, <a href="http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/story-19016037-detail/story.html#axzz2TpP2gF8f">Aaron Wilkinson</a> was fined £600 plus £182.50 costs by Nottingham Magistrates’ Court. No doubt this gentleman will be angry and astonished when he receives the notice of what he owes the court. £782 is indeed an outrageous penalty which resulted from careless disposal of litter which could have been settled for £50 if he`d paid the<a href="http://www.keepbritaintidy.org/KeyIssues/Litter/Default.aspx"> FPN</a>. If he continues to sit on his hands he will receive a visit from bailiffs employed by Her Majesty`s Courts and Tribunal Service. The final step in sagas such as this is the summons for an appearance at a means court where he will be subject to an investigation of his financial status. About 100 fine defaulters are imprisoned annually on the basis of wilful refusal to pay or culpable neglect. There are some who would argue that imprisonment for non payment of a fine is an injustice in itself and a disgraceful outcome in a society which considers itself benevolent and operating an enlightened justice system. That argument could be sustained by the fact that c£2 million is outstanding in non payment of fines, costs, compensation etc. There is virtually no likelihood that that amount will ever be recovered although the fines “current account” is perhaps succeeding in preventing an increase in that figure. My own experience was posted <a href="http://thejusticeofthepeace.blog.co.uk/2013/05/15/what-a-fines-mess-we-re-in-15981936/">here</a> earlier this month. </p> <p>With a general aversion to courts` imprisoning defaulters and the huge hurdle in place for that purpose in my opinion the only viable way to encourage people like the aforementioned Mr Wilkinson to meet his obligations is for there to be sanctions which can reasonably be employed where required eg unpaid work in the community. However with the enormous changes being imposed upon the probation service I see little likelihood of that happening.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/05/20/is-littering-a-national-stereotype-16033713/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p> http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/05/20/is-littering-a-national-stereotype-16033713/Mon, 20 May 2013 15:42:26 +0200 <p><img src="http://data8.blog.de/media/016/7040016_20d76b9e9c_m.jpeg" alt="JPs END OF THE ROAD">We are forever being assured by those in control that the institution of the magistracy will continue to be valued. What we are not told is the manner in which that value will be demonstrated. Whether criminal activity is actually reducing or the various statistical analyses make it appear so, judicial activity in the magistrates` courts is reducing as is the number of magistrates. In the last ten years there has been a 10% increase in the combined <a href="http://www.judiciary.gov.uk/publications-and-reports/statistics/diversity-stats-and-gen-overview/annual-ethnicity-statistics/annual-ethnicity-statistics-2003">number</a> of District and Deputy District Judges from 278 to 308. These are salaried civil servants whose full time equivalent basic gross pay is £102,000. There were 24,267 J.P.s at the last count but in 2008 there were 29,419; a reduction of 17% in just five years. Thus government in the last decade has considered it a viable proposition to increase its wage bill even although all the latest outcomes show that unpaid magistrates working at admittedly slightly slower rates cost less. So! less crime, more District Judges (inc. DDJs) and fewer J.P.s can indicate only one conclusion; namely that government is directing us to be less involved in the criminal courts system and shuffling a rump of J.P.s to such diversions as neighbourhood councils and lower tiers of so called community justice. Confirmation of such long distance intentions has been reinforced for me at least by information from a colleague who sits in another county.</p> <p>When her court was amalgamated the previous allocation of 0.5 DJ for the single court was increased to 1.00 although there was little prospect of an increased workload. The newly combined bench had now a complement of two DJs. Therefore 25% more work must be provided to keep him busy , after all he is being paid £2,000+ a week which means courts formally assigned to the lay bench are assigned to him. Analysis apparently seems to show that with the prevailing guidance in fact only 1.4 DJs are needed. I understand that representations are being made to senior judicial figures to have DJ attendance reduced. I would suggest that such manoeuvrings must be going on in many judicial areas where these recently employed DJs and Deputies are ensconced. </p> <p>If a government wants the country`s citizens to be convicted and sentenced by a single state employee for all summary and some either way matters as is currently the case with trial by a District Judge sitting alone, so be it. But the continuing obfuscation about intentions is not befitting those who profess in public to be proud of our system of summary criminal justice by the citizen peers of those in the dock before them. If the ultimate destination of the magistracy in its current form is the end of the road let it be admitted. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/05/18/the-future-of-j-p-s-is-the-end-of-the-road-16010073/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p> http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/05/18/the-future-of-j-p-s-is-the-end-of-the-road-16010073/Sat, 18 May 2013 14:28:31 +0200 <p><img src="http://data8.blog.de/media/182/7038182_9b381017f2_s.jpeg" alt="DEBATE">At a time when the government has assigned police to conduct their own traffic prosecutions in newly designated dedicated <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/traffic-courts-in-every-area">traffic courts</a> an interesting <a href="http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2013-05-16a.873.0&s=MAGISTRATES%60+COURTS#g878.1">debate</a> was yesterday held in the House of Commons: Road Traffic Offences (Sentencing). </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/05/17/road-traffic-offences-debate-16003825/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p> http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/05/17/road-traffic-offences-debate-16003825/Fri, 17 May 2013 12:56:28 +0200 <p><img src="http://data8.blog.de/media/953/7036953_05b8466839_m.jpeg" alt="PENDULUM SWING">It has long been my opinion that many major decisions on cause/effect, what works/what doesn`t work, in judicial, police or social services areas of expertise are the very opposite of expertise; they are as whimsical as womens` fashions or the latest downloads from Apple. Prison works! Does it? "Short, sharp shock" treatment at detention centres for young criminals (advertised as part of the 1979 Conservative Party Manifesto) Police killers will be given life long imprisonment. Prison is <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2012/08/29/3578660.htm">inhumane</a>. And so the list goes on adinfinitum. And so the whole process swings to and fro just as does the pendulum. </p> <p>A decade prior to my appointment as a J.P. the Crown Prosecution Service was established to take over the prosecution process from police who had been doing the job since the mid 1800s. And in a few months they will be doing it again. A couple of days ago before an audience of police officers Theresa May announced that <a href="http://www.policeoracle.com/news/Home-Sec-plans-more-police-led-prosecutions-_65206.html">police would take over </a>the prosecution of low level thieves who admit their guilt. A penny will get you a pound if this change in the prosecution pendulum`s direction does not herald an increase in the cases over which police will have discretion to by pass the CPS. It is, however, rather difficult to square this change with the revelation that the Metropolitan Police, literally so often a law unto itself, is apparently out of control insofar as the issue of <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/metropolitan-police-issues-29000-cautions-in-a-year-8613902.html">cautions</a> is concerned. </p> <p>With even the most casual public commentators prefacing many remarks on crime and disorder with the observation that reducing crime figures are open to question and the law `n order debate being reported in increasingly larger type and louder voices perhaps the emasculation of the justice system has reached its maximum and the pendulum is about to repeat its reverse cycle once again. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/05/16/pendulum-of-justice-15994480/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p> http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/05/16/pendulum-of-justice-15994480/Thu, 16 May 2013 13:30:56 +0200 <p><img src="http://data8.blog.de/media/389/7035389_02c2487ed5_s.jpeg" alt="PRAISE AND CRITICISM">I`m not the Home Secretary`s greatest fan but indicating today to an audience of police officers that the murder of one of their number will bring retribution of a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/theresa-may-life-should-mean-life-for-murdering-a-police-officer">whole life sentence</a> is to be applauded. </p> <p>The release of <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/may/13/chris-huhne-prison-humbling">Huhne and ex wife</a> two months into eight month sentences makes a mockery of the current system. Why have minutely tabulated, almost formulaic Sentencing Guidelines, when the coach and horses of early release at the behest of prison authorities et al ride roughshod over the whole process?<br> <img src="http://data8.blog.de/media/407/7035407_bcb70cfeb4_s.jpeg" alt="COACH AND HORSES"></p> <p> <small> <a href="http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/05/15/he-likes-it-he-likes-it-not-15982227/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p> http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/05/15/he-likes-it-he-likes-it-not-15982227/Wed, 15 May 2013 15:21:01 +0200 <p><img src="http://data8.blog.de/media/263/7035263_85efe814f5_m.jpeg" alt="LAUREL AND HARDY">I first commented on the scandal of unpaid fines <a href="http://thejusticeofthepeace.blog.co.uk/2010/02/22/for-fine-defaulters-would-one-day-in-custody-for-every-owed-reduce-the-debt-8055052/">22/02/2010</a>. I last commented three years later on <a href="http://thejusticeofthepeace.blog.co.uk/2013/02/25/scandal-of-unpaid-fines-for-the-poorest-in-society-15566781/">25/02/2013</a> with a few more posts in <a href="http://thejusticeofthepeace.blog.co.uk/2012/11/22/unpaid-fines-15234975/">between</a>. Not so long ago I sat in the “means court” for the first time in about a year and only then did I fully realise the scale of the problem. It is down purely and simply to the gross mismanagement of the whole fines` system; from the imposition by a court to the hearing at which a defaulter is brought to the means court to explain why a fine or part thereof remains unpaid.</p> <p>All the parts of the system are in disharmony eg the victim surcharge cannot be recorded within part of the system as a separate entity and is lumped in with the fine. Another part of the system cannot separately record costs and these too are somehow added on to other outstanding figures or so I have been informed. Fines from different courts cannot always be associated with the same offender. Payments of fines do not always reach the required account. Offenders can therefore have different accounts simultaneously. Payments deducted from earnings or welfare benefits at source can stop for various reasons without the knowledge of the offender. Although magistrates` courts have powers to remit (alter, reduce) outstanding fines if there is a change in the offenders` circumstances or lodge(eliminate) fines owing from those imprisoned they have no powers to alter decisions originally made at the Crown Court without express authorisation from that court. </p> <p>Considering the above and the reluctance of the powers that be to install a meaningful deterrent within the fines system or to signal a total overhaul of the data collection system that will allow control of the process and real knowledge in real time it is unsurprising that the system is in such a chaotic state. Instead of worshipping at the alter of payment by results to reduce re-offending where the “results” are wide open to “interpretation” the Ministry should apply PBR where results will be as clear as a penalty shootout in the Champions League. If £Xmillion is spent to create a system which recovers £Ymillion in fines etc and Y>X it wouldn`t take an Einstein to determine if savings have been made and at what cost/£. </p> <p>I suppose it`s alright for a simple blogger to make suggestions. After all doesn`t any government employ the brightest people to sort out problems?</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/05/15/what-a-fines-mess-we-re-in-15981936/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p> http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/05/15/what-a-fines-mess-we-re-in-15981936/Wed, 15 May 2013 14:56:14 +0200 <p><img src="http://data8.blog.de/media/066/7032066_134b92b035_m.jpeg" alt="POLICE CAR ADVERTISING">Remember the good old days when London had black cabs? Those were the days; none of the gaudiness of New York`s yellow monsters nor the assortment of transport taking passengers for suicide rides in Paris or Rome. The capital also had red double decker buses with conductors collecting fares and controlling good natured but sometimes rowdy passengers. Hail a taxi in London and it`s not unlikely to be painted red, yellow, white or any other shade thought to attract parcel laden tourists on a winter`s evening in Oxford Street. However not satisfied with removing the colour bar cab owners now rent their vehicles` bodies for the highest price whether it`s to a brand of travel company or hair shampoo. In a still just about free capitalist society such enterprise can be excused unless the black cab brand itself is sold off along with the red pillar and telephone boxes but what about colour co-ordinated police cars?</p> <p>TV programmes in the police genre based upon the 1950s and 60s are increasingly popular. Perhaps they stir memories of a gentler era where much went unsaid and hypocrisy was de rigueur. Certainly police cars lacked the luminescent tape and illumination like a Christmas tree. All round black paint, a single blue lamp and a hee haw siren were the rule. Times, they are always changin` but have they changed so much that police cars should sport a commercial logo as do the aforementioned taxis? The Police and Crime Commissioner for Dorset is seeking to maximise income for his hard pressed force of cops by renting the local police cars and vans as <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/10031215/Police-commissioner-wants-private-firms-to-sponsor-cars-and-stations.html">mobile advertising sites</a> just as those London cabbies have been doing for some years. The mind boggles. Local fast food outlets might be interested...”fastest deliveries in Dorset”....or....”try our blue light delivery service”. The idea might be contagious. Take courtrooms as an example: remove the Royal coat of arms and replace it with “Juicy Justice, Fast, Fair and Finger Lickin` Good” with the appropriate figure of an old southern gentleman. The sentencing guidelines could be sponsored by a well known store group and have at the header of each page, “Never knowingly undersentenced”. That could surely bring in a few pounds. All magistrates` sentencing pronouncements could be required to end with the words “You know it makes sense”. After all it helped the government of the day promote the wearing of seatbelts. Similarly when a fine is pronounced and the offender is informed of the making of a collection order the final phrase to be added could be, “Every Little Helps”. And in the case of an error in a pronouncement followed by a speedy apology the bench chairman could be mandated to say, “Should`ve gone to Specsavers”. </p> <p>After all when the Justice budget is being cut as if by a blind farmer with an out of control combined harvester surely all ideas of maximising revenue are saving you money every day because change happenz, it does what it says on the wall and it`s so good we put our name on it?</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/05/13/what-a-good-idea-15963023/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p> http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/05/13/what-a-good-idea-15963023/Mon, 13 May 2013 13:58:53 +0200 <p><img src="http://data8.blog.de/media/477/7028477_dc770e589b_m.jpeg" alt="GET OUT OF JAIL FREE CARD">Under the government`s camouflage of obtaining value for money in our justice system many slices of salami have been removed from the roll of product pressed against the rotary blade of austerity. The latest changes to the availability and provision of legal aid are just another cut in the body of justice which might not yet be dying but is certainly far from being in robust health. The newest piece of sticking plaster that the Justice Secretary has produced to shore up the tsunami of criticism which has been levelled against him from all quarters is his announcement that all those released from a prison sentence will undergo a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/12-months-supervision-for-all-prisoners-on-release">year`s supervision</a>. In the year to September 2012 <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/172773/criminal-justice-stats-sept-2012.pdf.pdf">34,593</a> offenders were sentenced to immediate custody not exceeding three months[pp57]. These people would generally serve half their sentence in the community. In 2006 <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmselect/cmjust/184/18407.htm">7,398</a> offenders were sentenced to a maximum of one month`s immediate custody. They would have included fine defaulters, drunk and/or disqualified drivers and persistent thieves offending to feed their addiction(s). There will be no filtering. All such offenders will be under the wing of Serco, Group 4 or other new “partner” in probation for 12 months being paid by results. The underlying problems of such offenders are generally drink and/or drugs. They impoverish those addicted, destroy family relationships and remove any desire to self reform. They are medical/health orientated conditions which our society is not prepared to remove from the prison system and, with the required legislation and input of capital, transfer to the N.H.S. </p> <p>From Kenneth Clarke to Chris Grayling; Get out of jail free, do not pass Go, do not collect £200. Perhaps from the sublime to the ridiculous is more appropriate. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/05/11/get-out-of-jail-15953600/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p> http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/05/11/get-out-of-jail-15953600/Sat, 11 May 2013 13:26:23 +0200 <p><img src="http://data8.blog.de/media/528/7025528_c4f04df20f_m.jpeg" alt="BARBARA HEWSON"><br> <blockquote><em>Spiked is an independent online phenomenon dedicated to raising the horizons of humanity by waging a culture war of words against misanthropy, priggishness, prejudice, luddism, illiberalism and irrationalism in all their ancient and modern forms. spiked is endorsed by free-thinkers such as John Stuart Mill and Karl Marx, and hated by the narrow-minded such as Torquemada and Stalin. Or it would be, if they were lucky enough to be around to read it.</em></p></blockquote> <p>The paragraph above was copied from the “<a href="http://www.spiked-online.com/about/article/336/">about</a>” page of "Spiked”. It states very clearly its opinion of those who disagree with its philosophy. It manages to place Karl Marx in opposition to the single person who took to its natural extent the principles he expounded. </p> <p>A regular contributor to “Spiked” is barrister Ms Barbara Hewson. Her contribution earlier this week has ruffled some feathers with her argument for a time limit on historical allegations of sexual abuse. That is certainly a topic of considerable importance and one could argue that it is one for the legal profession. No doubt we will be hearing of this for some time to come. But in an all encompassing <a href="http://www.spiked-online.com/site/article/13604/">article</a> she ventures into a realm in which we all should have an opinion; namely that the age of consent be reduced to 13. </p> <p>This country has the highest <a href="http://www.fpa.org.uk/professionals/factsheets/teenagepregnancy">teenage birth and abortion rate</a> in Western Europe. It is medically unchallengeable that the human brain does not reach <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=141164708">maturity</a> until the early twenties. We have a system of law designed specifically to separate juvenile and adult offenders. And this, Ms Hewson would argue, is no reason that there should be continuing protection of children from those who would exploit their youthful naivety. </p> <p>She uses the familiar oratorical tactic of introducing dissimilar comparison to enhance her argument.</p> <blockquote><p><em>Touching a 17-year-old’s breast, kissing a 13-year-old, or putting one’s hand up a 16-year-old’s skirt, are not remotely comparable to the horrors of the Ealing Vicarage assaults and gang rape, or the Fordingbridge gang rape and murders, both dating from 1986. Anyone suggesting otherwise has lost touch with reality.<br> </em> </p></blockquote> <p>If anybody has lost touch with reality it is Ms Hewson. I would imagine that any father of a teenage daughter would have little sympathy with a defendant accused of any of the above acts and who was defended by this barrister. He would be unlikely to consider the allegations as “misdemeanours” which is the word Ms Hewson uses with regard to the admissions of Stuart Hall. Indeed with such a public exposition of her views I wonder if her <a href="http://www.hardwicke.co.uk/people/hewson-barbara">chambers</a> consider their public profile is enhanced or diminished by such an article.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/05/09/only-a-misdemeanour-15911180/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p> http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/05/09/only-a-misdemeanour-15911180/Thu, 09 May 2013 13:46:57 +0200 <p><img src="http://data8.blog.de/media/015/7024015_58c1c4e372_m.jpeg" alt="HEAD IN THE SAND">It never ceases to amaze me that people who for whatever reason do not accept a Fixed Penalty Notice for a motoring offence, fail to appear on a summons for trial, fail to plead not guilty by post and are therefore invariably convicted unless there is a legal impediment are surprised. Often, of course, we have before us people making statutory declarations that until a fines notice was received they were unaware of any proceedings. In those case the matter is usually re-opened and the individual given verbal notice of the future trial date and advice to complete all details when the summons arrives if they intend to admit the charge and are unable to attend court in person. Many appeals at crown court against conviction and/or sentence are made by offenders who have failed to follow that simple pathway. It often costs them much in time and expense not withstanding the courts` costs. Perhaps those tried in absence without any evidence that they did all that could be reasonably required to be aware of the proceedings should lose the right of appeal.</p> <p>No doubt the motoring offenders listed at <a href="http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/coventry-magistrates-court-round-up---3413687">Coventry Magistrates` Courts</a> and at the country`s other courts who feel indignant at the consequences of ignoring their summonses will be aggrieved at the cost of hoping the matter against them would go away. It won`t and heads buried in the sand don`t help. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/05/08/it-won-t-go-away-15887308/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p> http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/05/08/it-won-t-go-away-15887308/Wed, 08 May 2013 13:17:39 +0200 <p><img src="http://data8.blog.de/media/393/7017393_eac2a60c94_m.jpeg" alt="SHEEP SHAGGER">Disregard the admitted drunkenness of the <a href="http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/article3751565.ece">offender</a> and consider the words “a bunch of sheep - shaggers”. Do they constitute an offence under s.5 of the Public Order Act? An English visitor to Wales admitted not to the simple charge of s.5 but the racially aggravated version of such. It is not unlikely that s.5 will soon be abolished. If this case is quoted as an argument for its retention by Welsh people of a delicate nature it will be because they have forgotten the British tradition of the lampoon ....” <em>publicly criticise (someone or something) by using ridicule, irony, or sarcasm</em>”. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/05/04/sheep-shagger-s-5-offence-or-lampoon-15826011/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p> http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/05/04/sheep-shagger-s-5-offence-or-lampoon-15826011/Sat, 04 May 2013 13:06:39 +0200 <p><img src="http://data8.blog.de/media/180/7016180_752c717508_m.jpeg" alt="BIBLE OF COMMUNITY PAYBACK">Generally this space is devoted to my opinions and observations some of which paradoxically have been both critical and praising of the probation service. Recently I stumbled upon what I suppose could be described as the bible of community payback of said probation service. Published by the Ministry of Justice under the umbrella of the National Offender Management Service it is entitled “Unpaid Work / Community PaybackService Specification and Operating manual for <a href="http://www.justice.gov.uk/downloads/offenders/probation-instructions/pi_02_2010_unpaid_work_community_payback_service_specification.pdf">COMMUNITY PAYBACK</a>:delivering the sentence of UNPAID WORK”</p> <p>Perhaps after reading through a few pages I realise that I am not of the same world as those who produced this manual. That of course is of no importance. More to the point is the question of whether those thousands of over worked <em>probation workers</em> are of the same world as the authors?</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/05/03/probation-workers-bible-of-community-payback-15821538/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p> http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/05/03/probation-workers-bible-of-community-payback-15821538/Fri, 03 May 2013 15:05:50 +0200 <p><img src="http://data8.blog.de/media/498/7012498_2e1ef8571b_m.jpeg" alt="SLAP ON WRIST">When Justice Secretaries and Ministers want to show their toughness on crime they turn to knives: eg in January 2009 Labour Minister David Hanson M.P. announced that anyone convicted of a knife related offence and sentenced to the maximum 300 hours of community payback would complete their sentence in intensive blocks. Fine oratory certainly and he added, “This is now being extended to include all knife crime offenders given any amount of community payback as part of their sentence. They will now have to do at least 18 hours of work a week." Considering that in 2007 (I cannot source more recent figures) only about 41,000 offenders received sentences of community payback it is unlikely that more than a handful received the maximum of 300 hours. And that is for all offences. The number therefore receiving 300 hours for a knife related offence can hardly be in three figures. Current guidelines indicate that for the lowest level of knife crime; possession of a bladed article, the starting point is high level community order. Indeed applying the guideline case "Povey", a first time adult offender convicted after trial would expect 12 weeks custody if the article were a knife. And true to form the current Secretary of State Chris Grayling M.P. has had his <a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/chris-grayling-justice-secretary-to-end-1470212">headlines</a> on sentencing for knife crime. All this is background to what really happens as opposed to the fine words from Whitehall which apparently have not been heard in Blackpool.</p> <p>All courts have security barriers and metal detectors operated by security companies. At <a href="http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/news/local-news/crime/exclusive-knives-in-court-shock-1-5630966">Blackpool Magistrates` Court</a> in the last year 50 knives and 5 bladed articles have been detected and confiscated from those entering the building. A court building with security officials, CPS personnel and police officers going about their business and prima facia evidence of offending would lead one to think that arrests would be made, charges laid and offenders prosecuted. One would be mistaken. According to the spokesman of that august organisation, Her Majesty`s Courts and Tribunals Service, that same organisation which brought us chaos in the contracting of court interpreters, “It is for the police to decide on what action is taken against an individual where the items surrendered or seized are referred to the police. HMCTS takes the issue of security within courts extremely seriously.”</p> <p>It is beyond belief that this is actually happening in England in 2013. I would hate to think of what would happen if HMCTS did not take the issue of security extremely seriously.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/05/01/the-scandal-of-a-court-s-security-15813595/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p> http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/05/01/the-scandal-of-a-court-s-security-15813595/Wed, 01 May 2013 13:23:13 +0200 <p><img src="http://data8.blog.de/media/955/7010955_be7f31fb7c_m.jpeg" alt="MUSINGS">Sometimes there is such a surfeit of information and news that deciding which comments I might make are least likely to bore my reader is rather difficult. The musings which constitute today`s post are mostly self evident and need little or no commentary.</p> <p>A consistent criticism of police disciplinary procedures is their secrecy. As far as I am aware there is no other public body which wraps itself in an invisibility cloak as surely as constabularies. The police might have justifiable complaints against the proposals put forward by Tom Winsor recently appointed as Her Majesty`s Chief Inspector of Constabulary but they will not secure or recover the public`s trust until they are <em><a href="http://www.policeoracle.com/news/Custody-death:-Force-decides-against-disciplinaries_64378.html">seen</a> </em>to eliminate the rotten apples in their ranks. </p> <p>There are now 310 District Judges(MC) and Deputy DJs sitting in the magistrates` courts. That is about <a href="http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/id=2007-12-04d.170098.h">one per court</a>. There are more awaiting appointment. It is inconceivable that the magistracy will be functioning as it currently does by the end of the second parliament from now. </p> <p>Conviction rates of those defendants who choose jury trial in either way offences cf those convicted of similar offences at a magistrates` court are, to my knowledge, not available. I wonder why not? The nearest I could find is this parliamentary answer of <a href="http://www.peterlilley.co.uk/questions/1086/either-way-offences">2001</a>.</p> <p>Although I am not inclined to believe every or any statistic thrown around by those involved in any aspect of crime or criminal behaviour I do take seriously the latest figures of the <a href="http://www.cps.gov.uk/news/latest_news/conviction_rate_rape_and_domestic_violence/?utm_source=Sign-Up.to&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1317-221444-Judicial+Intranet+update+26+April+2013">Crown Prosecution Service</a> when the subject is rape. For all too long this minefield has been carefully cultivated by <a href="http://feministphilosophers.wordpress.com/2013/04/29/rape-conviction-rates-up-but/">feminist groups</a> with a single agenda. It seems they are still there pouring scorn on the subject by careful manipulation of the numbers.</p> <p>For those who argue every which way about sentencing outcomes here are <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/192631/proven-reoffending-jul-10-jun-11.pdf">54 pages </a>of delightful information contained in the Proven Re-offending Statistics<br> Quarterly Bulletin July 2010 to June 2011, England and Wales. </p> <p>In a triumphant announcement of which Sir Humphrey would be proud Courts Minister Helen Grant merely <a href="http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/moj-announces-new-deal-courtroom-interpreters?utm_source=emailhosts&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=GAZ+25%2F04%2F2013">adds</a> to the failure of the government`s decision in ignoring the quality of the cloth and considering only its width when it appointed Capita plc to serve our courts with interpreters` services. That such incompetence is allowed to continue without sanction is beyond belief. </p> <p>Once again national statistics assure us that <a href="http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/crime-stats/crime-statistics/period-ending-december-2012/index.html?utm_source=Sign-Up.to&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1317-221444-Judicial+Intranet+update+26+April+2013">crime has decreased</a>. With continuing controversy of various out of court disposals including <a href="http://www.communityresolution.co.uk/how-community-resolution-works.html">community resolutions</a> study of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22346971">criminal statistics </a>is akin to a faith as opposed to a science.</p> <p>A few years ago I <a href="http://thejusticeofthepeace.blog.co.uk/2010/10/01/special-constables-and-the-met-9500072/">commented </a>that the Met Police`s policy of recruiting officers only after they had served as Specials for a year or more or as PCSOs was a wise move. It was in effect an apprenticeship scheme which served both employer and prospective employee. Four years later and it is <a href="http://www.policeoracle.com/news/Met-to-change-officer-recruitment-policy_63770.html">history</a>. Such is an example of public policy.</p> <p>We now know by a parliamentary question and answer on 23rd April that in the magistrates` courts of this country in the year 2012/2013 in 23,885 cases the Crown Prosecution Service <a href="http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2013-04-23a.152158.h&s=MAGISTRATES%60+COURTS#g152158.r0">offered no evidence</a> at trial. That is about 1.53 cases per week per court. Perhaps someone will help me decide if that ratio is one of which the CPS should be proud or ashamed. </p> <p>And finally the conviction rate at magistrates` courts has been constant at <a href="http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2013-04-22a.152154.h&s=MAGISTRATES%60+COURTS#g152154.r0">86%</a> for the last three years. Conclusions please???</p> <p>P.S. Police Oracle now requires registration to read its content. It is a good source of information which I have used for quite some time. I recommend it. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/04/30/musings-on-tuesday-15809941/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p> http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/04/30/musings-on-tuesday-15809941/Tue, 30 Apr 2013 13:39:48 +0200 <p><img src="http://data8.blog.de/media/359/7009359_42904eab72_m.jpeg" alt="NEWS OR OPINION">It is beyond dispute that the understanding of relatively simple mathematical concepts both in theory and practice has been shown to be beyond the ability of many people however well informed they otherwise might be. When secondary school maths teachers do not require any maths qualification beyond A levels it is no surprise. When it comes to statistical analysis deviously constructed statements leave the vast majority of the population floundering in a morass of uncertainty. Even relatively simple propositions eg the question for the Scottish referendum; "Should Scotland be an independent country?" are negotiated by the interested parties seeking etymological advantage. Therefore how much more does loose journalism or deliberately misleading journalism contribute to the public`s uncertain view of events?</p> <p>On <a href="http://thejusticeofthepeace.blog.co.uk/2013/04/24/howard-league-is-not-quite-premiership-standard-in-the-statistics-league-15785349/">April 24th</a> I commented upon the Howard League`s own misleading statements of magistrates` sentencing patterns. This was not an elemental error by a minor institution. It was a calculated misuse of statistics and it achieved its aim of widespread publicity in the local press nationwide. Not content with repeating that press handout the <a href="http://www.berwick-advertiser.co.uk/news/local-headlines/praise-for-area-s-magistrates-1-2911939">Berwick Advertiser</a> went one step further in its coverage. It offered praise to the local magistracy for being amongst the country`s lowest in custodial disposals. </p> <p>This newspaper therefore assumed that the local bench`s statistics were judicially and socially preferable to those of others with higher levels of custodial sentencing. This is an opinion certainly but no more. There are many arguments to the opposite. There was also an assumption that higher levels of custody are not in line with the local public`s preferences. I do not know. But I do know that such statements in newspapers should be confined to their editorial pages and not their local news pages under “Local Headlines.” </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/04/29/berwick-newspaper-confuses-news-and-opinion-15805333/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p> http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/04/29/berwick-newspaper-confuses-news-and-opinion-15805333/Mon, 29 Apr 2013 13:07:28 +0200 <p><img src="http://data8.blog.de/media/283/7004283_30fa80c8d7_m.jpeg" alt="FOOTBALL VIOLENCE">I am a football fan. I was about 11 years old when, along with two or three pals, I attended my first league game. Hail, rain or shine we enjoyed the freedom to shout our feelings from the terraces with no adults about to tell us to be quiet. I now have the purchasing power to sit in almost weatherproof comfort and watch some of Europe`s greatest players in action. </p> <p>1995 was a memorable year for Premier League footballers using violence to express their frustrations. I had not yet been appointed to the bench when <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/soccer-player-jailed-for-foul-play-1577101.html">Duncan Ferguson</a>, then playing for Everton, was sent off and subsequently jailed for assaulting an opposing player on the field by head butting him. I remember thinking at the time that some of the antics I saw on the pitch as a young school boy by the same reasoning would have warranted transportation at least. Perhaps the most high profile footballer to be convicted for actions during a game was <a href="http://worldsoccer.about.com/od/soccercultur1/a/Eric-Cantonas-Kick.htm">Eric Cantona</a> of Manchester United who used a martial arts kick on a spectator. He too was convicted of assault. </p> <p>In all contact sports there is a fine line to be drawn as to when an aggressive and/or viscious action breaches the boundary between a matter for the sporting authorities and the criminal justice system. I have twice witnessed tackles so unnecessarily potentially dangerous that two young international players were out of action for months having suffered broken legs. The offenders had momentarily lost control but it was obvious they had no intent to cause such injury and immediate red cards followed by bans imposed by the Football Association did not seem unreasonable recognition of the offences. But the case of Luis Suarez is in a different category as it appears from slomo T.V. images. His biting of an opponent`s arm had nothing whatsoever to do with playing the game hard; it was gratuitously intended to injure. At the very least it expressed Suarez`s frustration of the moment. Since it appears that the police will not be charging him with assault just what level of violence on the pitch would bring about such a reaction? In what way was Suarez`s assault any less worthy of charge than Ferguson`s. Perhaps the Uruguayan will find his style of play will be more tolerated back in South America or Italy or Spain? </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/04/26/louis-suarez-and-that-bite-15791968/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p> http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/04/26/louis-suarez-and-that-bite-15791968/Fri, 26 Apr 2013 13:43:49 +0200 <p><img src="http://data8.blog.de/media/689/7002689_27e9986ddd_m.jpeg" alt="ENTRY WARRANT">Blog analytics show that among the most visited pages on this site by what I assume are non legally minded viewers are those concerning entry warrants by utility companies or, as often is the case, by bailiffs appointed by them. </p> <p>As a newbie magistrate I was concerned at the rubber stamping of such applications without so much as a cursory inspection of the warrants` terms or inquiry in any individual case. To a certain extent that situation has improved and more of my colleagues are taking an inquisitorial role in their questioning of such applications. There is no doubt that since the requirement to send out “human rights” letters many utility companies consider that there is no other investigation required on their part prior to an application to install a pre payment meter for those who have an outstanding debt. Searches here will produce many previous posts on this subject. I had thought that the “message” was beginning to get through to the companies and their representatives; this court applies the principles enshrined in the “Good Practice Guide” for utility companies. I have been over optimistic.</p> <p>A bailiff before our bench not so long ago was simply that; a bailiff. Unlike the companies who employ their own staff to make application and who have visited every address on their list of warrants this person had absolutely no knowledge of any individual case except that some were domestic and some commercial and that each owed a certain amount which in one case was less that £150. She had no knowledge of when any previous payment had been made, denied that a person opposing in person a warrant being applied for on the grounds that she was making arranged payments to clear her account had indeed been on a payment arrangement scheme, All she had to support her applications was an address, sometimes without an occupant’s name and an uncorroborated outstanding amount. In addition the warrants` wording was such that an application to cut off supply not exclusively on health and safety grounds was included. After some brief discussion we scored through the offending words where required and returned unsigned about half the applications. </p> <p>I would hope that colleagues throughout the country are being thoughtful enough about individuals` rights to be strong enough to consider carefully such warrants even in the face of some legal advisors` impatience to get on with the morning`s list. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/04/25/utility-companies-still-don-t-get-it-15788530/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p> http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/04/25/utility-companies-still-don-t-get-it-15788530/Thu, 25 Apr 2013 13:24:56 +0200 <p><img src="http://data8.blog.de/media/256/7001256_5218b0610b_m.jpeg" alt="STATISTICS">The Howard League must have been rather pleased with itself at the coverage their latest “shock” news brought to local press country wide; headlined as a post code sentencing lottery a term first used to describe activities within the NHS. 3.9% of all those sentenced at magistrates` courts in the year ended September 2012 received an immediate custodial sentence. The numbers have been reducing over the last decade. The Howard League would wish that figure to be zero. It is a campaigning organisation pure and simple. It has its own agenda. Two conclusions arise from their stated goal; such offences for which offenders are liable to custody in magistrates` courts should be removed to the crown court or the sentencing guidelines should preclude custody for those offences. </p> <p>Whether or not there is a definitive answer as to which disposal has the “better” outcomes....so called justice in the community or prison.....it is rather uncomfortable to attempt to ride two horses simultaneously. The slight variations in custodial disposals which have been joy for the headline writers are just that...”slight”. The mean figure is 3.8% as shown in the <a href="http://www.howardleague.org/magistrates-sentencing/">table</a>. Remove the top and bottom four figures and the average is 3.9% As a basis of argument this non statistician considers this spurious exercise just another way to grab a headline. It has no meaningful significance. </p> <p>Section 152(2) Criminal Justice Act 2003 provides:</p> <p><strong>“The court must not pass a custodial sentence unless it is of the opinion that the offence, or the combination of the offence and one or more offences associated with it, was so serious that neither a fine alone nor a community sentence can be justified for the offence.”</strong></p> <p>Humans are individual creatures with long and varied individual histories and experience which as J.P.s they bring to the bench. How narrow should Howard League focus its criticism? Should every individual bench decision be tabulated to separate and control the “hangers and floggers” from the “do gooders”? That of course is a rhetorical question. Quite simply the magistracy is being pulled and pushed, buffeted from all sides and funnelled into a system of ever increasing control from the vested interests which pull the financial and political strings of justice. It is as well that the fumbling incompetency of the previous chairman of the Magistrates` Association has been replaced with the provincial tones of John Fassenfelt who is very capable of putting magistrates` opinions into the cauldron of public opinion on the basis of our being representatives of the communities in which we dispense justice and that that justice includes immediate custody when the offence is so serious that only custody is appropriate whether in Cumbria or Caernarvon. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/04/24/howard-league-is-not-quite-premiership-standard-in-the-statistics-league-15785349/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p> http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/04/24/howard-league-is-not-quite-premiership-standard-in-the-statistics-league-15785349/Wed, 24 Apr 2013 16:16:23 +0200 <p><img src="http://data8.blog.de/media/510/6999510_f9428a53c6_m.jpeg" alt="JUDGES LAUGH">We`ve had two walk outs by unionised legal advisors in the last year. Now their brothers in arms on the northern circuit of the criminal bar have shown in no uncertain terms that their tolerance of the government`s salami slicing of both financial ends and the middle of the justice sausage is just <a href="http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/barristers-strike-over-legal-aid-reform?utm_source=emailhosts&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=GAZ+22%2F04%2F2013">one slice too many</a>. Considering that many (a majority?) of those self employed juniors are currently paid less than plumbers or other skilled tradesmen I offer them total support from one who is in current parlance a Thatcherite but nevertheless is in despair that no senior members of this cabinet seem able to publicly criticise the Secretary of State. </p> <p>“Useful Information for Magistrates” by the Ministry of Justice has been published in its latest edition. One would have thought that it might have given the editorial board an opportunity to re-visit its guidance on blogging but apparently not. Indeed the “guidance” is repeated:- </p> <blockquote><p><em>Guidance on blogging and the use of Twitter was published by the Senior Presiding Judge and Senior President of Tribunals in August 2012. It said: “Blogging by members of the judiciary is not prohibited. However, judicial office-holders who blog (or who post comments on other people’s blogs) must not identify themselves as members of the judiciary. They must also avoid expressing opinions which, were it to become known that they hold judicial office, could damage public confidence in their own impartiality or in the judiciary in general. “The above guidance also applies to blogs which purport to be anonymous. This is because it is impossible for somebody who blogs anonymously to guarantee that his or her identity cannot be discovered. Judicial office-holders who maintain blogs must adhere to this guidance and should remove any existing content which conflicts with it forthwith. Failure to do so could ultimately result in disciplinary action.”<br> </em></p></blockquote> <p>On the other hand the Good Lord Leveson has decreed that <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/leveson-new-proposals-to-ensure-small-blogs-are-exempt-from-press-self-regulation">small blogs</a> such as this will be outside his proposed regulatory scheme.<br> <img src="http://data8.blog.de/media/509/6999509_55a2596bf6_s.jpeg" alt="BLOG ON"> </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/04/23/barristers-bare-their-teeth-and-blogs-blog-on-15781232/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p> http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/04/23/barristers-bare-their-teeth-and-blogs-blog-on-15781232/Tue, 23 Apr 2013 13:11:59 +0200 <p>A few days r `n r for J.P. means a few days without updates. I`m off now!<img src="http://data8.blog.de/media/534/6990534_4c21e607ea_m.jpeg" alt="r and r"> </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/04/17/a-little-r-n-r-15763589/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p> http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/04/17/a-little-r-n-r-15763589/Wed, 17 Apr 2013 17:13:06 +0200 <p><img src="http://data8.blog.de/media/491/6990491_dfee9e0140_m.jpeg" alt="LADDER OF SENTENCING">A recent sitting was in the breach court. I find the prosecution at my court to be of a high standard. All evidence seems to be available with the only chink in the armour a reliance on computer print outs of the chronology of the case; print outs which sometimes raise more questions than answers. It has been admitted in open court more than once that the reliance on probation workers recording accurately every interaction with the clients has to be weighed against the number of clients passing through the system and the numbers in the office dealing with them. I have ceased to be over critical in my comments. </p> <p>There is one trend in pre sentence reports that I do find difficult to tolerate and an example presented at that recent sitting. We were being asked to revoke and re-sentence. The offender had been convicted of a relatively low level offence and had been sentenced to a medium term of unpaid work in the community. We had therefore in front of us the PSR based upon which the defendant had been sentenced previously and which he had breached twice initiating the request from the prosecutor who read out an addendum from the officer concerned. Apparently he recommended that he now be “sentenced to a Suspended Sentence Order with additional work hours requirement imposed. My words to the prosecutor were, “ Are you telling us that the report writer now considers that the defendant`s substantive offence is now so serious that only custody is appropriate?” To make the point I continued, “To suspend custody one must firstly cross the threshold that only custody is appropriate before considering whether there are considerations which warrant suspension.” We did not follow the proposal and the prosecutor assured us he would report our comments to the officer concerned.</p> <p>I am inclined to think that such muddled thinking in probation offices is not confined to my court.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/04/17/probation-s-mis-understanding-of-suspended-sentence-order-15763525/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p> http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/04/17/probation-s-mis-understanding-of-suspended-sentence-order-15763525/Wed, 17 Apr 2013 16:46:40 +0200 <p><img src="http://data8.blog.de/media/761/6986761_6eaff70643_s.jpeg" alt="CPS WHIPPING BOY">I doubt that many of my colleagues have not sat in court at 10.00am awaiting the appearance of a prosecutor of, or on behalf of, the CPS. I would also wager a tidy amount that many have wished to dismiss charges laid against some or all of the defendants awaiting their day in court when there is no sign of said prosecutor`s presence and only the vaguest information when such presence is to be expected. </p> <p>The routine incompetence of the CPS owing to mismanagement, reduced staffing and inefficient systems is no longer an unusual feature of the magistrates` courts. Undoubtedly there are some magistrates whose frustration at that organisation`s shortcomings lead them to overly critical considerations of applications for adjournments etc. Thanks to CRIMELINE here is reported an <a href="http://www.crimeline.info/case/director-of-public-prosecutions-v-stafford-magistrates-court">appeal</a> against just such precipitate actions by the bench at Stafford Magistrates` Court. It is required reading for those including this blogger who might be too quick to use the CPS as a whipping boy for all the iniquitous decisions being taken which are resulting in an apparent irreversible reduction in quality of our system of summary justice.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/04/15/cps-cannot-be-a-whipping-boy-15757299/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p> http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/04/15/cps-cannot-be-a-whipping-boy-15757299/Mon, 15 Apr 2013 13:03:30 +0200 <p><img src="http://data8.blog.de/media/196/6983196_973cc0cc53_m.jpeg" alt="PENDULUM">It could be said that human beings can be divided into three types and that division could be applied to any number of our predilections. Physically there are the tall, the short and the medium. Psychologically there are those who are generally happy, those who are depressed and that middle group who will tend to neither state most of the time. The list is considerable. Many facets of our life can be considered to swing between extremes with unfailing regularity. Stock markets and skirt lengths are two that come to mind. With this in mind in this modern society there is the group which prefers order and regulation, another section of the opposite bent which can tend to the anarchic at its extreme and once again a third group which might vary in its temperament from one to the other depending on the circumstances. To many of us, despite its denials, the `elf & safety fraternity is the beaurocratic manifestation of a regulatory frame of mind gone amok. </p> <p>Magistrates` Courts have cells where remanded defendants are held prior to their appearance in the dock. They can hardly be termed comfortable but they fulfil their purpose and provide basic requirements for the few hours spent in them by their transient occupants. With the closure of many courts and police stations over the last three years distances travelled by regular court users have increased quite considerably in many areas. But rules is rules is rules. The good folk who administer the day to day functioning at Kirklees Magistrates’ Court who have to have one eye looking over their shoulder at the best of times to ward off the evil eye of political correctness, ensured that defendants awaiting their court appearance would not be inconvenienced by being kept in an environment which meant they might have to endure an air temperature a degree or three below that which is recommended for their situation. Thus they were kept secure at the local nick with all the unnecessary travel and hassle that followed from that decision; the whole sad story being available <a href="http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/local-west-yorkshire-news/2013/04/13/86081-33163997/">here</a>. </p> <p>I had thought that the pendulum of such petty regulation had swung quite far enough to begin its return journey to some sort of sanity. I was too optimistic.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/04/13/the-pendulum-swings-but-not-just-yet-15752739/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p> http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/04/13/the-pendulum-swings-but-not-just-yet-15752739/Sat, 13 Apr 2013 19:36:04 +0200 <p><img src="http://data8.blog.de/media/973/6979973_be6ac6d53c_s.jpeg" alt="JUSTICE IN A FOG">This subject is becoming seriously heavy. I had intended today to recount an interesting although depressing experience at a court sitting not so long ago but the explosion of the Ministry of Justice`s output on cautions has put paid to that in the interests of being topical.</p> <p>I would imagine that in times past the law was simple. Hammurabi, 6th King of Babylon, knew a thing or two about enabling his subjects to go about their “lawful” business. Indeed he impressed the Israelites so much with his legal code that a couple of centuries later a certain prophet by the name of Moses refined it for his own purposes. Of course as society became literate and property ownership was obtained by contract as opposed to the sword lawyers naturally employed their literary skills to protect their clients` interests. Criminal law similarly progressed from the biblical injunction to current times at a rate which was nothing less than overwhelming until today when we have a Court of Appeal, over which a Superior Court is there to oversee its decisions which can then be taken to the ECHR if needs be. Perhaps legal Russian dolls is a fitting image. </p> <p>Since I posted yesterday`s topic the Ministry has vomited byte upon byte on “cautions”. One such document, “The Quick Reference Guide to Out of Court Disposals” goes to 24 pages. The accompanying document “Simple Cautions for Adult Offenders” extends to another 24 pages and 80 sections. There is a similar story on “Penalty Notices for Disorder”. All these and others similar can be found on the Ministry of Justice website <a href="http://www.justice.gov.uk/out-of-court-disposals">here</a>. </p> <p>Is it any wonder that there is disagreement amongst all the involved parties on the morality, efficacy and practicality on the cautioning of offenders and other out of court decisions when these decisions have to be made fairly quickly by a station sergeant or an officer on the beat. Does there not come a time when simplicity should rule over the minutiae of legislation? Is the legal profession enjoying dancing on a pinhead with all those angels? Would we as citizens be disadvantaged if there were less box ticking and greater reliance on first principles in the application of the criminal law? In other words has the view of justice been lost within the sight of the law?</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/04/11/cautions-cautions-and-more-cautions-has-justice-been-lost-15745358/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p> http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/04/11/cautions-cautions-and-more-cautions-has-justice-been-lost-15745358/Thu, 11 Apr 2013 12:59:41 +0200 <p><img src="http://data8.blog.de/media/733/6860733_a02713b018_s.jpeg" alt="POLICEMAN MAKING HIS NOTES">Police cautions are currently a “hot” topic. A seemingly simple operation has apparently brought into conflict the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2013/jan/29/criminal-record-checks-human-rights">Home Secretary </a>(and therefore the police) <a href="http://www.justice.gov.uk/news/press-releases/moj/cautions-for-serious-and-repeat-offenders-under-review">The Secretary of State for Justice</a>, the <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/9830254/Use-of-police-cautions-has-got-out-of-hand-magistrates-warn.html">Magistrates` Association</a> and many <a href="http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/389457/Police-cautions-create-murky-justice-says-JP">individual J.P.s</a> whose opinions are expressed in necessarily rather hushed tones within secure environments. The mass media of course find the topic overflowing with milk and honey or perhaps it is just food and drink to the <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2269104/One-violent-criminals-escapes-just-CAUTION-police-wrongly-let-sex-offenders-burglars.html">Daily Mail</a>. To simplify the point; at issue is on the one hand, the right of a defendant to plead innocence such a plea to be tried in court, and on the other allowing a low level offender a reduced sanction on admission of guilt to a police officer. Of course like a good stew there are many other ingredients in the pot. </p> <p>It is public knowledge that police are ambivalent on this subject. Therefore it is interesting to read the views of an unknown number of police officers polled on an unknown question(s) by <a href="http://www.policeoracle.com/news/Use-Of-Cautions:-Officers-Split_63159.html">Police Oracle</a>. An “official” police opinion was reported <a href="http://www.policeoracle.com/news/Comment:-Why-We-Should-Welcome-A-Review-Of-Cautions_63104.html">here</a> by the same publication. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/04/10/cautious-on-cautions-15740801/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p> http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/04/10/cautious-on-cautions-15740801/Wed, 10 Apr 2013 13:05:40 +0200 <p><img src="http://data8.blog.de/media/614/6976614_e0addc5f07_m.jpeg" alt="DICTIONARY DEFINITION OF DV">Just over twenty years ago the Dangerous Dogs Act became law propelled into legislation in great part by a media frenzy over a few tragic child victims in the years previously who had been savaged by dogs out of control. Prior to that Act many cases were brought to court under an Act of 1871. For each family an incident involving injury or worse by an out of control dog was an overwhelming tragedy for those concerned but as was predicted at the time hasty law does not necessarily make good law and so it was proved. Amendments have been made and more are being considered. It is arguable that a similar pattern of legislation involving out of control men subjecting women to violence is taking place.</p> <p>For centuries in England the law and religion were an effective combination which effectively ensured women were second class citizens. Under that umbrella of protection many women suffered mental and physical harm that is as foreign to us nowadays as slavery. It is to the shame of humanity that such attitudes still pervade societies where “enlightenment” can be construed as treason. It is to the shame of some within these shores that such attitudes (and practices) have not been yet eradicated. But are current events sufficient to broaden the concept of “Domestic Violence”? For whatever reason our legislators have not attempted to introduce an actual offence of DV preferring instead to tinker with the constituent parts of broader law already in place. No more than a generation ago most police forces did not consider the pursuit of a charge of assault by a male against his female cohabiter within the marital home worth the effort until the results became tragically such, that action was unavoidable. Time has moved on and so has society`s tolerance. The term “domestic” has widened to include even once removed family members and it is reckoned that about 90% involve traditional male to female violence, the remainder mainly but not all female on male violence. From March 31st the term “violence” has been widened to include acts of controlling, coercive or threatening behaviour by offenders. And for the first time the definition of “violence” will include psychological abuse meaning that domineering men who torment their partners but do not assault them. and who take control of a spouse’s finances, could all count as acts of domestic abuse.</p> <p>For Justices of the Peace who preside over a majority of allegations of assault in a domestic context judgements will have to be made within these new parameters. As a consequence no doubt there will be a noticeable increase in the number of convictions being taken to appeal at the Crown Court in the next twelve months. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/04/09/domestic-violence-a-new-definition-15736430/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p> http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/04/09/domestic-violence-a-new-definition-15736430/Tue, 09 Apr 2013 14:05:05 +0200 <p><img src="http://data8.blog.de/media/850/6974850_57eece08f8_m.jpeg" alt="GUIDELINES USEFULNESS">I would imagine that every single one of my colleagues has sat on a case of common assault and after hearing all the facts wondered why a more serious charge was not brought. Very often the defendant has pleaded guilty to the lesser charge when offered a plea bargain by the CPS. And that happens for two main reasons; the facts lie on the cusp of the considerations applicable to a charge of causing actual bodily harm and the evidence is strongly against the defendant or the evidence is not considered strong enough to proceed with the more serious charge and the defendant is induced to plead to the lower level offence. Of course there are myriad other considerations eg previous history, legal arguments, availability of witnesses on the day etc etc. The CPS functions under a very severe straightjacket of considerations. Three such, <a href="http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/s_to_u/sentencing_manual/assault_occasioning_actual_bodily_harm/">Actual</a> Bodily Harm, <a href="http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/s_to_u/sentencing_manual/wounding_or_inflicting_grievous_bodily_harm_with_intent/">Unlawful</a> Wounding and s.3 <a href="http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/s_to_u/sentencing_manual/affray/">Affray</a> are available as examples. That tick box procedure has since been refined but is still essentially a tick box exercise. Ten years ago Guidelines were introduced in an attempt to offer some uniformity in sentencing. </p> <p>The real world of charging and sentencing continues hundreds of times every day in CPS offices and Crown and Magistrates` Courts throughout the country. For the observer they are condensed into very detailed statistics provided quarterly by the Ministry of Justice but they do not convey the realities of the events which encompass ordinary people both victims and defendants. Underlying the whole process is a 23% reduction in the Ministry`s budget fixed by former Secretary of State Kenneth Clarke almost three years ago. Other factors which are common knowledge are the government`s aim to reduce the prison population, an increased emphasis of “community” involvement in sentencing and rehabilitation and a determination to reduce the availability of state financed expert legal counsel to defendants. Unless lower level ie summary or more commonly either way offences are appealed on conviction and/or sentence the only knowledge available to the casual observer is by way of truncated local reporting a facet of our on line society which is surprisingly in decline. Quite simply most people are not interested. </p> <p>Three recent matters of assault have been reported in Skegness, Exeter and Maidstone involving a <a href="http://www.thisislincolnshire.co.uk/story-18531101-detail/story.html#axzz2Prs9LDOQ">District Judge</a>(MC), a Crown Court <a href="http://www.thisisexeter.co.uk/story-18579030-detail/story.html#axzz2PrrihORJ">Judge</a> and a <a href="http://www.kentonline.co.uk/times_guardian/news/2013/april/2/three_thugs_attack_man.aspx">Recorder</a> respectively. Although the reports are necessarily relatively brief this blogger questions whether the aforementioned guidelines have made a positive contribution to charging and sentencing.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/04/08/are-charging-and-sentencing-guidelines-a-positive-contribution-to-justice-15732304/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p> http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/04/08/are-charging-and-sentencing-guidelines-a-positive-contribution-to-justice-15732304/Mon, 08 Apr 2013 14:05:13 +0200 <p><img src="http://data8.blog.de/media/526/6971526_075f12e25a_s.jpeg" alt="COUNTY MAGISTRATES COURT">Four days ago I posted on the inexcusable mismanagement at the local CPS owing to the non attendance of prosecutors which resulted in a morning`s list being lost at <a href="http://thejusticeofthepeace.blog.co.uk/2013/04/02/a-system-in-chaos-15706569/">Swansea Magistrates` Court</a>. Various apologists in such situations are prone to comment that the incident was an isolated example and add the usual euphemistic jargon beloved of “spokespeople”. I would ponder whether <a href="http://www.thisisgrimsby.co.uk/story-18628627-detail/story.html#axzz2Pg14zSdN">Grimsby</a> area CPS has been infected with the same `orrible virus as their colleagues further to the west. There, also, prosecutors did not appear at the local magistrates` court. So yesterday there was no activity. Heaven knows the total costs of this mismanagement : not only the daily running costs of the court but the intangibles of costs to lawyers and defendants. All too frequently defendants are considered as collateral damage when courts go out through events such as at Grimsby and Swansea but also through lack of court time owing to deliberate double or even treble listing of trials. </p> <p>Gradually all involved are subliminally accepting the current situation as the norm. It took two post war generations to achieve a reasonably efficient and trustworthy courts system. Consider all that has happened since 2010 and it is taking five years to ruin it.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/04/06/the-ruin-of-a-courts-system-15725730/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p> http://TheJusticeofthePeace.blog.co.uk/2013/04/06/the-ruin-of-a-courts-system-15725730/Sat, 06 Apr 2013 12:52:47 +0200