‘Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary has castigated police forces over stop and search, saying that 35 years after the power was introduced they were still unable to explain why black people are more likely to be targeted.’
The Guardian, 26th February 2021
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘Today [23 February], the Freshwater Five case is in front of the court of appeal after the disclosure of new evidence that the defence says points to the men’s conviction being unsafe. Why has it taken a decade to get to this point?’
The Guardian, 23rd February 2021
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘Human trafficking is internationally recognised as threatening human rights and the fundamental values of democratic societies. States have taken action to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking and to provide support to victims of what is the third largest illicit money-making venture in the world. But what happens when the victims of trafficking commit a crime themselves? Should they be prosecuted? What factors are relevant in this assessment? And which arm of the State should the assessment of whether someone is a victim of trafficking be entrusted to? This is the first time the European Court of Human Rights has tackled these questions. The Court found that the UK had breached its obligations under articles 4 and 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights by prosecuting two Vietnamese children who were potential victims of trafficking.’
EIN Blog 24th February 2021
Source: www.ein.org.uk
‘Police forces are having to ration forensic toxicology work, especially samples from suspected drug drivers, because there is not enough capacity in the system to handle the volume of work, the outgoing forensic science regulator has said.’
The Guardian, 16th February 2021
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘An accountant and his father have been convicted of mistakenly killing their relative with a crossbow and murdering a cannabis farm burglar seconds later.’
BBC News, 11th February 2021
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘The appellant was sentenced on an unchallenged, written basis of plea to the effect that he was a mere custodian of drugs on behalf of another. In these circumstances the court was bound to apply the provisions of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA 2002) consistently with the facts of the basis of plea. On his basis, the appellant could not be said to have received the drugs for his own benefit and therefore he did not obtain property within the meaning of POCA 2002, s 76(4).’
5SAH, 11th February 2021
Source: www.5sah.co.uk
‘A drugs boss who ran a multi-million pound enterprise in the UK has been jailed after detectives hacked into his encrypted messaging accounts.’
BBC News, 4th February 2021
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘A drug dealer and his care worker girlfriend have been jailed for trafficking teenagers to sell drugs for a county lines operation.’
BBC News, 28th January 2021
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘An appeal on the issue of whether a Council landlord’s initial failure to have regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty on commencing possession proceedings could be remedied by later performance of that duty.’
Nearly Legal, 2nd January 2021
Source: nearlylegal.co.uk
‘A breach of lease case in the Upper Tribunal which, despite the names, appears to be between two unrelated people. So I shall call them L – the leaseholder – and F – the freeholder – to avoid multiple Gibbins related confusion.’
Nearly Legal, 13th December 2020
Source: nearlylegal.co.uk
‘A former public schoolboy and professional rugby player was in jail last night (Sun) after trying to swallow 50 packets of crack cocaine and heroin.’
Daily Telegraph, 6th December 2020
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
‘A drug dealer who wore a chainmail vest to protect himself has been found guilty of murdering a rival.’
BBC News, 20th October 2020
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘Eighteen members of a gang who ran a county lines drugs operation stretching from north Wales and Merseyside as far as Anglesey, Cornwall and Scotland have been sentenced to a total of nearly 147 years’ imprisonment, with individual sentences ranging from 4 to 21 years at Mold Crown Court.’
Crown Prosecution Service , 11th September 2020
Source: www.cps.gov.uk
‘A judge has claimed he was put under “improper and undue influence” to keep a defendant in custody.’
BBC News, 11th September 2020
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘Ceon Broughton, a rapper jailed over the death of his partner Louella Fletcher-Michie from a drug overdose at Bestival has won his appeal against his manslaughter conviction. Broughton’s conviction in 2019 and seven-year prison sentence for manslaughter was quashed on 18 August 2020 by the Court of Appeal. The appeal was heard before The Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales Lord Burnett, Mr Justice Sweeney and Mr Justice Murray.’
Garden Court Chambers, 18th August 2020
Source: www.gardencourtchambers.co.uk
‘A boy who was “butchered” in a drugs turf war after being groomed by drug dealers had been arrested in a crack den months earlier but police did not contact child exploitation staff, a report has found.’
BBC News, 26th May 2020
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘The applicant in Hafeez is a sixty-year old man with a number of health conditions, including diabetes and asthma. He was arrested pursuant to a request by the US Government for his extradition on drugs charges. He challenges the decision to extradite him, arguing that his pre-conviction and post-conviction detention conditions in the US would be inhuman and degrading; and that there is a real risk that he would be sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.’
UK Human Rights Blog, 18th April 2020
Source: ukhumanrightsblog.com
‘The coronavirus pandemic could provide an unexpected opportunity for police forces to tackle county lines drug dealing as the lockdown means criminals “stick out like a sore thumb”, senior officers have said.’
The Independent, 20th April 2020
Source: www.independent.co.uk
‘Sometimes cases stand for far more than their strict ratio decidendi. The High Court’s recent ruling in Hafeez v Secretary of State for the Home Department is a prime example of such a case. The facts are simple. The US sought from the UK the extradition of Mr Hafeez, the alleged leader of an international crime syndicate and so-called “Sultan of drugs”. Unsurprisingly, Mr Hafeez resisted that motion, claiming that were he to be extradited, he would in all likelihood be sentenced to life without parole in the US, which would breach his rights under the ECHR. The UK, he argued, would be complicit in breaching his rights were it to proceed with the extradition. The High Court was to determine whether this was in fact the case.’
UK Constitutional Law Association, 3rd April 2020
Source: ukconstitutionallaw.org
‘EP was a 21 year old who suffered a number of mental disorders, bulimia nervosa, unstable personality disorder, depression and features of dependence syndrome. He had supplied her with DNP over the internet. She had consumed a number of capsules of DNP and suffered a most distressing death as it destroyed her internal organs causing them to fail. There is no effective treatment for what she suffered.’
St Pauls Chambers, 20th March 2020
Source: www.stpaulschambers.com
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