‘The National Crime Agency has been labelled “incompetent” by an Old Bailey judge after a series of blunders led to the collapse of a £5m trial.’
The Guardian, 2nd December 2014
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘The highly secretive trial of a man accused of plotting a terrorist attack in London is to be re-run after an Old Bailey jury was discharged. Erol Incedal, 26, is expected to appear in court for a second time next year. He had pleaded not guilty to a charge, brought under the Terrorism Act 2006, that he intended to commit acts of terrorism or assist another to commit them between 1 February 2012 and 14 October last year.’
The Guardian, 11th November 2014
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘The Appeal Court has allowed a Libyan man to proceed with legal action against the British government, despite the government’s claim that the case could damage relations with the United States. Joshua Rozenberg discusses the implications.’
BBC Law in Action, 4th November 2014
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘Expert witnesses are being subjected to greater scrutiny by the criminal courts, despite the government’s refusal to implement safeguards recommended by its own law reform advisers.’
The Guardian, 15th October 2014
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘The jury in the trial of a Sun reporter accused of paying a police officer for a tip-off has been discharged after failing to reach a verdict.’
BBC News, 2nd October 2014
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘The hotchpotch of measures that comprises the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill is about to reach Report Stage in the House of Lords. The Bill sets out a panoply of new and controversial measures to deal with dangerous offenders, young offenders, drugs-testing in prisons, wilful neglect or ill-treatment by care workers, reforms to criminal proceedings (including the use of cautions), the possession of extreme pornographic images, civil proceedings involving judicial review (B. Jaffey & T. Hickman), personal injury cases and challenges to planning decisions. The adequacy of this miscellaneous approach to law reform will doubtless come under the fuller scrutiny that it deserves elsewhere. This blog takes as its focus provisions in Part 3 of the Bill which seeks to put on a statutory footing offences connected with private research by jurors. I suggest that resort to the criminal law constitutes a clumsy, impractical and unnecessarily punitive attempt to regulate the extra-curial activities of the modern, online juror. It is incumbent on our lawmakers to explore more imaginative responses to the undoubted problem of jurors’ access to untested, internet materials – responses that might be more obviously premised upon an appreciation of jurors’ dutiful efforts to arrive at just verdicts.’
UK Constitutional Law Association, 2nd October 2014
Source: www.ukconstitutionallaw.org/blog
‘Forensic expert Peter Gill, who raised the issue with the Home Office in April said the recognition that subjective interpretations of DNA evidence were potentially biased and unscientific and could lead to a number of appeals.’
Daily Telegraph, 23rd September 2014
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
Yeo v Times Newspapers Ltd: [2014] EWHC 2853 (QB); [2014] WLR (D) 383
‘Since all factual issues in a libel action were for the eventual substantive tribunal it was inappropriate that the outcome of a preliminary application for trial by jury in such an action should be informed by a decision as to whether the case was about factual allegations or about value judgments.’
WLR Daily, 20th August 2014
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
‘The mother of Mark Duggan, whose fatal shooting by police in London sparked nationwide riots, is challenging an inquest verdict of lawful killing.’
The Guardian, 9th July 2014
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Regina v Smith (Owen): [2014] WLR (D) 287
‘In a prosecution for an offence under section 16 of the Firearms Act 1968, of possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life or to enable another person to endanger life, it was neither necessary nor appropriate in the ordinary way for the judge to direct the jury, on the question of intent, that the Crown had to prove to the satisfaction of the whole jury that it was the defendant or alternatively, another, who intended that life should be endangered; the intent was the same in each case.’
WLR Daily, 27th June 2014
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
‘The trial of Andy Coulson has ended after the jury failed to reach majority verdicts on two remaining counts that he conspired to commit misconduct in public office by paying public officials for the acquisition of royal phone books.’
The Guardian, 25th June 2014
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘Politicians are warned by judge not to comment upon the outcome of the hacking trial until the jury has returned all its verdicts.’
Daily Telegraph, 24th June 2014
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
‘They are the two words the jury in the phone hacking trial may have waited months to hear. At 3.15pm in court 12 of the Old Bailey, Mr Justice Saunders said: “And finally.”’
The Independent, 12th June 2014
Source: www.independent.co.uk
‘A teenager accused of plotting a Columbine-inspired massacre at his former school in Loughborough has walked free from court after the collapse of his second trial.’
The Guardian, 30th May 2014
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘Judges should warn juries about the common misconceptions people have about rape before they are allowed to hear any evidence, two of the leading figures in the fight against sex crime say today.’
The Independent, 6th May 2014
Source: www.independent.co.uk
‘Another year, and yet more criminal justice legislation. The Criminal Justice and Courts Bill 2013-14 is going through Parliament at the moment, and it will come as no surprise that it includes new criminal offences.’
Halsbury’s Law Exchange, 22nd April 2014
Source: www.halsburyslawexchange.co.uk
‘Jurors who are found to be researching cases on the internet will be jailed for up to two years, under a new criminal offence announced today.’
The Independent, 5th February 2014
Source: www.independent.co.uk
‘A Muslim woman who wore a full-face veil in court during her trial has admitted witness intimidation.’
The Guardian, 30th January 2014
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘A judge warned a jury on Wednesday that it was wrong to be prejudiced against anyone because of their expression of religious faith, as a Muslim defendant prepared to go on trial wearing a full face veil.’
The Guardian, 22nd January 2014
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘Two men and three teenage boys have been found guilty of a series of rapes and sexual assaults on young girls.
Zdeno Mirga, 18, Hassan Abdulla, 33, and three boys were convicted at the Old Bailey. The Crown Prosecution Service said it was one of the “worst cases” of child sex abuse it had seen.’
BBC News, 15th January 2014
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
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