CPS Update

The report on London's CPS that I referred to a while ago is now complete and Frances Gibb of The Times writes about it here

The overall tenor of the report is unenthusiastic, although it does give credit for good work when it finds it. If that's the best the CPS can do before the next round of financial cutbacks, it bodes ill for the future.

Boss Heads For Exit

Tim Workman, the Chief Magistrate, is soon to retire. He presides at Westminster Magistrates' Court (that used to be known as Horseferry Road, which is where it is).
Westminster has special jurisdiction over terrorism and extradition matters, and through its location also attracts big-news cases such as the alleged expenses-fiddling MPs. It has a number of District Judges as well as a lay bench.
Tim Workman was a solicitor in private practice before joining the bench as a Stipendiary Magistrate. I have met him a few times in committees and such, and by one of those odd coincidences I once instructed him in a case, a few years before I became a JP.
One of my then employees caused a fairly big car crash in Maidenhead and was summonsed to court to answer a charge of careless driving. I asked a solicitor pal if he knew of a good man in Maidenhead, and he named Tim W, whom I duly instructed to mitigate.
Small world, isn't it?

Family Circle

We remanded a young serial thief today. He has another case pending, so he sleeps in Feltham tonight, as he has done for a week or three.
He brought a fan club to court that half-filled the gallery. I gave them my best glare in case they became too vocally supportive of their man, but there was nothing to worry about.
Among the dozen-and-a-half relatives was a sweet little girl, four years old or so, sitting on an adult's knee. She was very well behaved, but I did catch sight of her gently smiling and giving a discreet wave to her 19 year-old uncle who was seated behind the armoured glass of our secure dock, flanked by two custody officers.
Family support is one of the positive indicators when it comes to reforming offenders, and this chap had lots of it.
But after he had gone down the steel staircase to sit in a cell while waiting for the van to take him back to prison, I was moved to wonder how I would feel if one of my dear granddaughters were to be taken to watch a relative being sent down.

All Time Great Legal Jokes No. 144

Ethical Dilemma

Mrs. Robertson, an eighty year-old widow, visits her solicitors to make a small adjustment to her will. She has been a client of the firm for more than fifty years, and the senior solicitor who looks after her affairs rapidly notes her instructions and promises to get the job done straight away. The client reaches into her bag and takes out a small container. "I have just brought along a couple of my home made cakes. I hope you like them. One other thing; to save trouble, let me settle your bill now, rather than waiting for you to send it in". "Well thank you" says the lawyer. "As an old client, shall we call it fifty pounds?"
The old lady handed over a fifty pound note, and prepared to leave.
Later, the lawyer was about to put the note into his wallet (such a small sum being too trivial to trouble the tax authorities with) when he noted that he had been given two new fifty pound notes that were stuck together.
So here is the ethical dilemma he faced:-


Should I tell my partners?

News In Brief

* Many court staff will be on strike tomorrow and Tuesday. Magistrates who are due to sit have been asked to turn up anyway, although there may be no work for some of them.

* The Magistrates' Association is discussing retirement age (currently 70) on the basis that many people still have all their marbles at that age, and should be allowed to carry on subject to annual appraisal. It will not happen.

* There is a backlog of Family Court work and posters have appeared in London courthouses asking for volunteers for the Family panel. The workload in Family has shot up following well-publicised cases of child abuse and neglect.

* There are still concerns that the CPS are under-charging cases, in order to get a more certain conviction or even a guilty plea. Typical examples are an obvious ABH charged as a Common Assault, thus preventing election for jury trial, and those caught with fairly large amounts of cannabis as well as scales and plastic bags being charged with simple possession rather than With Intent to Supply.

* Associate Prosecutors (not qualified solicitors or barristers) are to be selected and trained to carry out a greater range of prosecutions, such as summary magistrates' trials (non-imprisonable only) Special Reasons hearings, and others. This is another nail in the coffin of the independent Bar. APs will be regulated in future by the Institute of Legal Executives (ILEX).

* The Anonymous Prosecutor deals with the cost implications here.

* When imposing a fine the court has to assess the Relevant Weekly Income (RWI). Someone on benefit is deemed to have RWI of £100, and someone who does not provide full information is assessed at £350 RWI. A multi-millionaire was recently sentenced in a London court and fined £2,000 which was far less, as a proportion of his income, than £100 would be to someone on Jobseekers.

* A woman who attended court to have a fine reassessed (not having attended the first hearing) heard that the fine was being reduced from £350 to £100 and asked the bench "Is that the best you can do?"

* The youngest current member of my Bench is 26, and very good.

* There is, for some reason, a poll on the MA members' site asking if: I would prefer to be called a community justice rather than a magistrate
I won't disclose the result, but you can probably guess. That 'C' word always makes me suspect that the hand of the dreaded Louise Casey is involved.

What Happened To The Old Certainties?

I am confused. What is happening to me? First, as kindly pointed out by Anonymous John, the Mail has run a reasoned and thoughtful piece about the Venables affair by Suzanne Moore, and then I open my Sunday Times to find that I agree with the drift of a column by, of all people, Jeremy Clarkson.
I think I may need a holiday.

Emetic

This speaks for itself.





Thanks to Steve Bell in The Guardian

Venables

He may well have committed a further offence. In that case the authorities must keep it under wraps, because he could not otherwise hope to have a fair trial in front of a jury.

He and his accomplice have received hugely expensive education and supervision since they killed a toddler while they were children themselves.

If that has not worked in this case, that does not create an argument for not trying rehabilitation in future cases.

That's about all we know, or will know for some time, about this.

How Would You Deal With This?

Two middle-aged men are side by side in the dock. Each has a care worker with him as both have learning difficulties. They have committed sexual offences against girls of 12 (I have to be careful here, but suffice it to say that no physical contact was involved, but rather crude and inapproriate sexual talk) that has obviously caused great fear and upset to the young victims. The defendants are quickly identified, and brought to court.

They are charged under Section 12(1)a and other sections of the Sexual Offences Act 2003.

This will have to go up to the Crown Court, of course. The victims will have been traumatised and will need careful care and counselling that is, in my experience, likely to be forthcoming.

So what do we, as a society, do with them? Their crime is awful for their young victims, and must have traumatised the girls' parents too. But they are, in the old and obsolete phrase, a bit simple. They need permanent support from their local authority, and they can live independently only with that support. So where do we start?

It won't be for me to decide, as a Circuit Judge will have that job, but how is he to balance the competing interests of public protection, concern for the victims, the need to treat those of limited mental capacity in a humane way, and the overriding law?

Any ideas?

It's Being So Cheerful As Keeps Me Going

We are trying to catch up on our backlog of trials this month and some extra courts have been laid on. Inevitably, the first three that I sat on fell apart. The first changed his plea to guilty and the second had the charges greatly reduced, resulting in a guilty plea. The third was a typical foul-up; one witness was unavailable abroad and had been so for a while, but nobody had bothered to make a hearsay application. Neither police officer had been warned to attend by the CPS either. So the prosecutor bowed to the inevitable and threw his hand in, offering no evidence. I duly announced that the case was dismissed.
So far so not-very-good, but the day was enlivened by an (unsuccessful) attempt to escape from the courthouse and ended sombrely when I passed a huge pile-up on the motorway involving at least half a dozen cars and vans, with police ambulances and fire engines all over the place. (later edit) I discovered from the news that a helicopter had attended too, and landed on 'my' side of the road, so I was well out of it.