‘Cuts in legal aid are creating chaos in the family courts, according to legal experts, who warn that the resulting delays are having a serious impact on the children of warring parents.’
The Guardian, 29th March 2014
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘David Bedingfield of 4 Paper Buildings charts the recent history of scientific research into serious non-accidental head injuries suffered by babies and the response of the family and criminal courts in England and Wales.’
Family Law week, 11th March 2014
Source: www.familylawweek.co.uk
‘A man who spent 17 years behind bars after being wrongly convicted of a sexual assault has been freed by the court of appeal after DNA evidence pointed to another man as the perpetrator.’
The Guardian, 13th December 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘Cases of identical twins being tried for the same crime may never happen again after a scientific breakthrough found there are subtle differences in their DNA.’
Daily Telegraph, 11th December 2013
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
“A consultation on strengthening the powers of the Forensic Science Regulator has been launched today.”
Home Office, 8th November 2013
Source: www.gov.uk/home-office
“Technical evidence can sometimes be crucial to judicial decisions and this case shows how dramatic the consequences are for a family if evidence is unreliable. If the respondent in this case had not put probity before its commercial interests, a mother would have been deprived of the care of her child. Hence the importance of publishing the judgment.”
UK Human Rights Blog, 25th October 2013
Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com
“Lawyers for Shrien Dewani, the honeymoon murder suspect, are to ask British prosecutors to consider bringing a case against him in a dramatic attempt to avoid a trial in South Africa.”
The Guardian, 21st September 2013
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“In December 2010 the government announced plans to close the Forensic Science Service (FSS). The FSS was the primary source of forensic expertise to prosecution authorities, and a major provider of expertise to defence lawyers – demonstrating a world class position as provider of impartial evidence to the criminal justice system. Whilst at the time of closure there was already an increasing move to outsourcing services to private forensic providers, the bulk of market share was taken by the FSS, meaning that private providers had little commercial clout. Since the demise of the FSS the position has shifted and power is split between the buyers of services (primarily the police) and the private providers. One matter of grave concern at the moment is in relation to accessing forensic material.”
CrimeLine, 9th September 2013
Source: www.crimeline.info
“Major crimes could go unsolved unless the government does more to support forensic science, MPs have warned.”
BBC News, 25th July 2013
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“A man wrongfully convicted of possessing ammunition after forensics staff mixed
up his £3 keyring and a live bullet is suing the government.”
BBC News, 7th June 2013
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“In an ideal world, experts would be brought into a case to help ascertain what has happened, use objective instruments that quantify and interpret the evidence, and provide the court with an unbiased view. However, the reality is that often experts are recruited to help make a case for an existing theory of what has happened, and they rely on subjective judgments and interpretations. Can we expect experts to be objective? Is it realistic that without specific cognitive measures experts can be impartial?”
Halsbury’s Law Exchange, 21st May 2013
Source: www.halsburyslawexchange.co.uk
“A man who was wrongly charged with rape was the ‘innocent victim of an avoidable contamination’ at a private forensics laboratory, an official report concludes.”
The Guardian, 1st October 2012
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“A man and a woman from Birmingham have been found guilty of manslaughter after a 40-year-old Leicester man died following an explosion at a kebab shop.”
BBC News, 26th September 2012
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“Four of the terrorists convicted for the 21 July 2005 bomb plot will launch an attempt to have their sentences quashed following claims by a former senior government scientist that key forensic evidence used to jail the attackers was flawed.”
The Guardian, 19th September 2012
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“The Freddy Patel case shows how market forces inevitably lead to creeping deregulation if applied to the legal system.”
The Guardian, 29th August 2012
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“The closure of the forensic science archive in England and Wales will cause miscarriages of justice and stop police solving crimes, senior politicians, scientists and lawyers have warned.”
BBC News, 18th July 2012
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“At the Guardian’s Open Weekend, Michael Mansfield QC warns against imagining that miscarriages of justice are something that have declined since famous confession-based cases of the 1980s. In today’s world, where faulty forensic evidence is more likely to be the problem, he worries about access to justice, pointing the finger at the emasculation of the legal aid system by successive governments and a renewed attempt to erode the right to trial by jury.”
The Guardian, 2nd April 2012
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“A convicted killer has started a new High Court challenge to access forensic evidence that his lawyers claim could clear his name.”
BBC News, 21st March 2012
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“Scores of convictions for serious crimes may have to be reviewed after a serious blunder by a leading private forensics firm led to a suspected rapist being acquitted, the Guardian has learned. The company, LGC Forensics, has admitted that a sample at one of its laboratories became so contaminated it could not be offered in evidence.”
The Guardian, 8th March 2012
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“Closing the Forensic Science Service will make miscarriages of justice more likely.”
The Guardian, 16th February 2012
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
© Inner Temple Library 2023