Déja Lu

The study of literature teaches, above all, that however much human circumstances may change, human nature remains the same.

This came home to me with some force the other day when a 25 year-old scion of one of our very extended local families whose members have kept our court in business and our local solicitors in groceries for many years appeared in custody charged with a residential burglary. He peered under his brows until he located half a dozen relatives in the public gallery, greeting them with a nod, then cast a surly glance at the bench. "Just a moment sir" called the usher, and then a small boy walked in accompanied by his enormous grandmother. They were sat in the well of the court, along with a member of the Youth Offending Team.
I glanced at the list, and saw that the two were jointly charged, the younger being 12 years old. Apparently his uncle had lifted the boy up to enter a house via the fanlight window, whereupon he had opened the door to admit the older man. The whole thing was pure 'Oliver Twist' - the two characters would have been perfect to play Sykes and Oliver.
So we remanded Bill Sykes in custody, and bailed Oliver to the next available Youth Court. Procedures have changed over the years, but Charles Dickens would have recognised the whole scenario. And in 150 years' time, I have no doubt that something similar will come before my successors.

Stoned Walls

This piece, published a while ago in The First Post will have come as no surprise to those of you who read this on here.

Soul and Heal

The excellent NHS Blog Doctor points us to this mordant comment on so-called 'alternative' medicine. When some enthusiast for The Alternative Way gets hold of me at a party or in the pub, I try to remind myself of the fact that nobody who has just been run over by a bus has ever been known to call "get me a homeopath" rather than a properly equipped paramedic ambulance.
The good Doctor has previously made another telling point that has stayed with me:- when the Queen or Prime Minister or any other highly valued celebrity travels with an entourage, that entourage will include a doctor, rather than a 'nurse practitioner'. Sauce for those geese is sauce for this here gander.

The Long Arm Of The Straw

What can I say about this?

Or this?

Interesting Case

Thanks to Crime Line for this interesting case about sentencing. I am sure that Justices' Clerks across the country will be issuing guidance about it.

When a matter is too serious to be dealt with there and then a bench will order a pre-sentence report. As required by the 2003 Criminal Justice Act we have to complete a reasons form to hand to Probation. We fill in the starting point for the offence, then aggravation and mitigation, and any personal factors. We then indicate our view of the appropriate sentence, often bracketing across several options. If custody is an option, immediate or suspended, we have to say so. Many of us write "ALL OPTIONS OPEN" on the bottom of the form to avoid any doubt. I always read the form to the defendant and make sure that he understands if custody is on the cards. There is case law, referred to in the above report, that if the bench indicates a community penalty then the defendant has a 'legitimate expectation' not to go inside. Until now, that has been that (and much frustration can be caused by careless benches who tie the hands of eventual sentencers). The High Court has upheld the DJ(MC) who ignored that on the grounds that the decision was 'perverse' and that too raises a few questions. Their Lordships mention the fact that the bench ordering reports did not reserve the case to itself, but that is not at all unusual because of the problems in reconvening a lay bench. It looks like this one was doing half-day sittings so they couldn't even deal with it later in the day. If we convict after trial I always insist that at least one of us comes back for sentence, despite the fact that our Clerk doesn't like it. If needs be I will swap into a sitting, or simply adjourn the sentence to a day when I or a colleague are in. I think that the objection owes more to administrative convenience than to justice. Someone who has sat through a trial and heard the evidence and seen the witnesses will have a far fuller understanding of the case than someone looking at a single A4 proforma.

So let's see what our advisers make of this latest case. I will keep you informed, of course.

Old Bailee

Deciding on bail is one of the most important tasks performed by magistrates, and while we have the Bail Act to guide us, there is a considerable degree of judgment required. When someone comes before us in custody from the police station the Prosecutor will make representations before the Defence make their bail application. These days there are a few Prosecutors who are on something of a mission, and who vigorously oppose bail in almost every case. This means that we have to look carefully at the objections before we reach our decision. The other day a man was brought in, and the Crown opposed bail because he was already on (bail) remand awaiting committal to the Crown Court for six high-value thefts, and had just been charged with a seventh. The Crown submitted that this raised the fear that he would commit further offences, so please would we lock him up. I questioned the Prosecutor closely about the seven offences, and it turned out that the seventh theft was carried out at the same time as the first six, but the police had only just got together enough evidence to charge him with it. So the offences were all of a piece, the objection was not made out, and we re-bailed him on the same conditions as before. The CPS need to do a bit better than this. Prosecutors have a duty as officers of the court to assist proceedings and they must try to avoid a knee-jerk policy of always opposing bail.

War On Drugs - Latest

Phew! That's a relief.

Puts me in mind of this.

A Personal View

If I were Justice Secretary and I were asked whether or not to confirm a decision of the independent Parole Board to recommend the release of a prisoner of almost eighty, who is fed through a naso-gastric tube and who has a broken hip and requires constant nursing care, I am pretty sure I would go ahead and confirm it.

But then I am not a politician, and I couldn't give a toss what the tabloids think.

Here's the threat to society - looks dangerous doesn't he?

Crikey!

I have just stumbled across this list of revised fees to be charged by magistrates' courts. I'm not sure how I feel about HMCS charging for the services that I give for free (well all right, for a few biscuits then).

What Was That Again Officer?

'The promise of reform which the Green Paper heralds holds much for the public and Service alike; local policing, customised to local need with authentic answerability, strengthened accountabilities at force level through reforms to police authorities and HMIC, performance management at the service of localities with targets and plans tailored to local needs, the end of centrally-engineered one size fits all initiatives, an intelligent approach to cutting red tape through redesign of processes and cultures, a renewed emphasis on strategic development so as to better equip our service to meet the amorphous challenges of managing cross force harms, risks and opportunities.'

The above is apparently a quote from an ACPO document. Once I had recovered from the GBH done to my native language I started to feel a sneaking sympathy for the less exalted coppers who have to put up with this rubbish.

The whole story is here.