Pause follows uncertainty over how trials would work given physical distancing needs
Crown court trials across England and Wales were suspended or collapsed on Monday as judges attempted to find safer ways for juries and lawyers to conduct hearings.
There have been suggestions, including from the Ministry of Justice, that courts move to handling urgent work only during the coronavirus crisis, but no one has defined what types of cases that might involve.
Continue reading...Crown Prosecution Service panel examines decision to prosecute when alleged victim wanted matter dropped
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) will review its handling of the assault case against the late Love Island host Caroline Flack.
Flack killed herself on 15 February while awaiting trial on charges she assaulted her boyfriend Lewis Burton with a lamp.
Continue reading...Call for inquiry into CPS as prosecutions fall by a quarter and convictions by a fifth
Rape victims are finding it increasingly difficult to access justice as police refer fewer cases to the Crown Prosecution Service and fewer allegations of rape are being prosecuted and convicted, according to new figures.
The number of cases referred by the police for charging decisions fell by 32% in the year to September 2019, while prosecutions by the CPS fell 26% and convictions dropped 21%, according to quarterly CPS prosecution data across a range of crimes.
Continue reading...Crown Prosecution Service asks attorney general to review 30-year term for student who raped up to 195 men
A man described as Britain’s most prolific rapist could have his sentence increased after the Crown Prosecution Service wrote to the attorney general saying Reynhard Sinaga should serve longer than 30 years in prison.
Sinaga, a 36-year-old mature student from Indonesia, was given a life sentence with a minimum tariff of 30 years by a judge at Manchester crown court last week. Suzanne Goddard QC told him it was “borderline” whether he should be given a whole-life term but decided that he should not be considered for release until he was 66, having been unanimously convicted by four juries of drugging and abusing 48 men while they lay comatose in his Manchester flat.
Continue reading...The Victims’ Commissioner is demanding that the Metropolitan Police explain its decision not to pursue a full investigation into claims a teenager was trafficked to the UK to have sex with Prince Andrew.
The Observer understands that Dame Vera Baird QC, a former solicitor general and chair of the Board of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, has taken a close interest in the allegations, first examined by Scotland Yard in 2015.
Continue reading...Report says police have only superficial understanding of crimes against older people
Older victims of crime are being let down by the police and the wider criminal justice system, according to the first inspection report on the age group.
The police have only a “superficial understanding” of the crimes committed against older people, the report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services and Her Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate says.
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