Unlimited jail terms under review – Daily Telegraph
“Jack Straw is reviewing the new open-ended jail terms amid fears that they are clogging up the prison system.”
Daily Telegraph, 13th July 2007
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
Category: sentencing
Keep women out of jail, group says – The Times
“More community sentences should be tailor-made for women to keep them out of jail, a women’s equality group has claimed. ”
The Times, 11th July 2007
Source: www.timesonline.co.uk
Four 21/7 bomb plotters get life – BBC News
“Four men convicted of the 21 July bomb plot have been jailed for life, with a minimum tariff of 40 years each.”
BBC News, 11th July 2007
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Man jailed over terror cell plans – BBC News
“A man who stored up what police called a ‘vast library of terrorist material’ has been jailed for nine years.”
BBC News, 6th July 2007
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Public ‘should decide spending on prisons’ – Daily Telegraph
“England’s most senior judge called for a review of sentencing last night, saying society should decide how much it was prepared to spend on sending offenders to prison.”
Daily Telegraph, 4th July 2007
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
Uncle gets life for Casey murder – BBC News
“A man has been jailed for life after admitting the rape and murder of his two-year-old niece in Leeds.”
BBC News, 2 July 2007
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Attempted murder offences to get sentence reduction – The Times
“Criminals convicted of attempted murder should serve as little as 40 per cent of the sentence that would have been imposed if they had successfully claimed a life, sentencing advisers said today.”
The Times, 28th June 2007
Source: www.timesonline.co.uk
More prisoners to be freed early – Daily Telegraph
“Thousands more convicts are to spend less time in jail as a result of law and order measures published by the Government yesterday.”
Daily Telegraph, 27th June 2007
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
Father jailed for refusing to pay child maintenance despite ex-wife’s support – The Times
“A lawyer was jailed yesterday for refusing to pay child support to his former wife, despite her pleas that he should not be given a custodial sentence.”
The Times, 26th June 2007
Source: www.timesonline.co.uk
Call for appeal over ‘pathetically lenient’ rape sentence – The Guardian
“The attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, is considering an appeal against a sentence given to a man for raping a 10-year-old girl.”
The Guardian, 26th June 2007
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Magistrates’ jailing powers to be slashed – The Observer
“The Government will this week spark a new war with the judiciary by stripping England and Wales’s 30,000 magistrates of powers to hand out suspended jail terms, in a fresh bid to ease the prisons crisis.”
The Observer, 24th June 2007
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Sentencing change leads to £10m jail backlog – The Guardian
“Ministers seriously underestimated the huge numbers of inmates who would clog up prisons under the new indeterminate sentences for public protection (IPPs) and will not be able to process them through the system for at least another two years, officials admitted yesterday.”
The Guardian, 23rd June 2007
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Roll-call of ‘lenient’ judges – Daily Telegraph
“More than 100 criminals, including murderers and sex offenders, had their sentences increased last year because judges were “unduly lenient”, figures showed yesterday.”
Daily Telegraph, 23rd June 2007
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
Related link: Statement by Sir Igor Judge: Unduly Lenient Sentence statistics
Transport thugs may face heavier sentences – Reuters
“Thugs who commit crimes on public transport may face longer sentences than at present because of the fear they spread with their mindless aggression, Chancellor Gordon Brown said on Tuesday.”
Reuters, 19th June 2007
Source: www.reuters.com
Gunmen ‘let off full jail terms’ – Daily Telegraph
“Only one in five criminals convicted of possessing a firearm has been sentenced to the mandatory minimum jail terms created by the Government to fight gun crime, Home Office figures show.”
Daily Telegraph, 14th June 2007
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
Outrage as child sex offenders avoid jail – Daily Telegraph
“Thousands of sex offenders including paedophiles and rapists have escaped with cautions rather than being jailed over the past five years.”
Daily Telegraph, 11th June 2007
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
R v. Harries and others – WLR Daily
“A term of imprisonment for public protection should not be imposed for an offence which was committed over a period of two or more days which straddled the coming into force of the dangerous offender provisions where it was not clear when the offence was actually committed.”
WLR Daily, 6th June 2007
Source: www.lawreports.co.uk
Please note once a case has been fully reported in one of the ICLR series the corresponding WLR Daily summary is removed.
R v Brown; R v Carty – Times Law Reports
Removing disparity in life tariffs reflecting age disparity of murderers
Court of Appeal
“Where two codefendants committed a murder jointly and one was aged just over 18 and the other just under, the sentencing judge, in fixing the minimum terms to be served, should adopt the starting point appropriate to each age and then move to a position where any sentence disparity was no more than a fair reflection of the age difference between the offenders.”
The Times, 5th June 2007
Source: www.timesonline.co.uk
Please note the Times Law Reports are only available free on Times online for 21 days from the date of publication.
Regina v. McNee; Regina v. Russell, Regina v. X – Times Law Reports
Sentencing judge can consult tariff
Regina v. McNee; Regina v. Russell; Regina v. X
Court of Appeal (Criminal Division)
“Although when imprisoning a defendant to a discretionary life sentence, the sentencing judge was not obliged to have regard to the minimum tariffs for mandatory life sentences set our in Schedule 21 to the Criminal Justice Act 2003, it was not wrong to do so.”
The Times, 31st May 2007
Source: www.timesonline.co.uk
Please note the Times Law Reports are only available free on Times Online for 21 days from the date of publication.
Website lists likely punishments – The Times
“Anyone up before a magistrates’ court can now go online to find out the likely sentence for the alleged offence in advance of the hearing.”
The Times, 30th May 2007
Source: www.timesonline.co.uk
