Teens, sex and “statutory rape”
Any time the matter of sex involving teenagers is adiscussed on social media, there is someone who insists that the act must be rape because someone younger than the age of consent cannot consent....
Category: British justice
What part of ’32 weeks’ don’t people understand?
Today (Monday), a woman in Stoke-on-Trent in England was sentenced to 28 months’ imprisonment for aborting her pregnancy at between 32 and 34 weeks. She did this by deceiving a major abortion provider, the...
Not just a child
Last week the UK’s Supreme Court ruled that Shamima Begum, the “ISIS bride” who ran away from home to join the self-styled Islamic State aged 15 in 2015, had no right to come back...
The danger of a return to the death penalty
The same weekend the government signed a wretched trade deal with the European Union which preserved the zero-tariff regime on goods but sacrificed almost every other advantage we had from being an EU member...
Inquest travesty
This week the inquest into the death of Thomas Rawnsley, the young man with Down’s syndrome and autism who died in 2015 in a privately-run care home, Kingdom House, where he had been placed...
Justice matters, and it costs
Last Friday some of the tabloids led with a story whingeing about the money that was spent on the defence of the men convicted of manslaughter in the case of PC Andrew Harper, who...
Mandatory life sentences for manslaughter?
A few days ago I got a link on my social media to a story about a campaign for the law to be changed so that there would be a mandatory life sentence for...
Boris Johnson’s vision: tabloid mob rule
There is an article in this week’s New Statesman from Danny Kruger, newly-elected MP for Devizes (right) in Wiltshire, replying to two pieces from last week’s edition which called Boris Johnson’s government aimless in...
Should this racist thug be behind bars?
A 29-year-old man who attacked a young boy because he thought he had bumped into his child’s buggy while running for a bus received a suspended sentence (twelve months, suspended for two years) at...
How is this murder?
Last week a woman in the UK went on trial for murder after pouring sulphuric acid on a partner (Mark van Dongen, right) who had broken up with her. The unusual thing about this...
“Due process”: the baneful legacy of Magna Carta
This year marks the 800th anniversary of the sealing of Magna Carta, the treaty which protected the rights of the Norman barons during the reign of King John, and has since become a byword...
Feminists throw Billy-no-mates under the bus
A letter to … the girl who accused me of rape when I was 15 | Life and style | The Guardian I knew when I saw this piece in today’s Guardian Family supplement...
Open letter on murder of disabled man — please sign
Open letter to Keir Starmer regarding Jordan Sheard (public) - Google Drive The above is an editable open letter — it is editable so that you can add your name to the bottom of...
Andrade tragedy is not unique
Sexual abuse victim’s suicide sparks call for review of court procedures | UK news | guardian.co.uk Last week it was revealed that Frances Andrade, the 48-year-old violinist and music teacher who had given evidence...
Pauline Pearce: why jail drug mules?
“Hackney heroine” tells why she confronted rioters (from last Monday’s Guardian) Pauline Pearce was the woman caught on camera lecturing rioting youths in Hackney that they should “fight for a cause” rather than tearing...
Seize their buildings
Earlier today I watched the Dispatches programme, Britain’s Secret Slaves (in the UK, you can watch it on their 4oD service), about the mistreatment of domestic workers in the UK. The first half, roughly,...
DNA casts doubt on Luke Mitchell’s guilt
Luke Mitchell is someone I didn’t want to be guilty when I heard the case on the news at the time, but after the verdict and the sentence I had to concede. However, any...
Wrongly jailed man freed after 27 years
BBC News: Conviction quashed after 27 years A man has been freed after spending 27 years in jail for the murder of a woman who was strangled in her car in 1979. The man...