Criminal

The coroner’s inquest into the London Bombings of 7 July 2005 is over. Max Hill QC,who represented the Metropolitan Police throughout, gives a firsthand account

“We are here today to resume the inquests into the deaths of the 52 innocent people who were killed as a result of the bombs in London on 7 July 2005. I should like to take a moment to remember them individually. Mr Keith will read out each of their names and then I shall ask all of us who can stand to do so for a minute’s silence in their memory.” 

Osama bin Laden was killed in May in a US military operation.  As the dust in Pakistan settles, Ali Naseem Bajwa QC and  Anna Morris consider the issues raised

President Obama’s announcement on 2 May that al-Qaeda’s leader, Osama bin Laden, had been killed in a US military operation in Pakistan was a dramatic and significant moment. The news was widely welcomed; however, once some of the facts of the operation became public, voices of disquiet began to emerge about the state killing of an unarmed person in another sovereign state and the fact that he would now never stand trial for his alleged crimes. Here we will examine those concerns and analyse some of the main issues that are engaged by the killing of bin Laden. 

In the second part of his article on the attempt by Abu Hamza to avoid extradition, Paul Hynes QC considers the arguments in the European Court and their compatibility with European notions of cruel and inhuman treatment

As we saw in the first part of this article, four men, Babar Ahmad, Haroon Rashid Aswat, Syed Tahla Ahsan and Abu Hamza, exhausted their UK domestic challenges to US extradition, and had to look to Europe for a remedy. 

Job titles
Head of Chambers and Silk 2KBW

2KBW is primarily a criminal set of chambers with a Western Circuit heritage. Increasingly members are working in other areas particularly London, the South East and the Midlands including a significant group of civil practitioners, dealing with general common law as well as some more specialised areas of civil law.

Job titles
Chief Executive and Senior Civil Clerk, 9 Gough Square Chambers

A leading common law set based in London but appearing in courts throughout England and Wales and abroad. Key practice areas are personal injury, clinical negligence, professional negligence, fraud and serious crime, family, police law, employment and property.

Response to Government announcement on Jackson; the Norgrove Review; criminal legal aid update; inaugural Bar Debate; and a clutch of new Silks.

We now have the Government response to the consultation on implementation of the Jackson reforms. It will have caused dismay to many. In large measure it intends to adopt all of the proposals. 

Keir Starmer QC welcomes the launch of the CPS Advocate Panels Scheme, which he believes represents a turning point in the delivery of prosecution advocacy and improved relations between the CPS and the Bar.  

The CPS currently prosecutes just over one million criminal defendants every year. The vast majority are in the magistrates’ courts, but many are in the Crown Court and some are in the appellate courts. The advocacy in those cases is carried out either by self-employed advocates, mostly barristers, or by barristers and solicitors employed by the CPS. In my view, that is a healthy mix. 

In the wake of Julian Assange’s ongoing struggle against extradition, Sarah Lewis questions the UK’s willingness to accept European arrest warrant procedures at face value

The case of Julian Assange has put the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) under the spotlight. As a mechanism by which wanted individuals can be extradited from one EU member state to another, the EAW has been hailed as a valuable and successful instrument, cutting the delays and red tape associated with traditional extradition methods that have, in certain circumstances, enabled criminals and those suspected of committing crimes to remain beyond the reach of the law. 

Felicity Gerry and Catarina Sjolin explain why they believe jurors should be made aware of the psychiatric effect of a sexual attack on the consistency of a victim’s evidence.

In February 2007, in Counsel, we suggested that the jury could be given a judicial direction on the psychiatric effect of a sexual attack on the consistency of a complainant’s evidence without the need for expert evidence (see “Inconsistent Victims”). Four years on, the signs are that Judges are starting to give an “experience shows” rape trauma direction. 

sentencing guidelines

The Sentencing Council has published a new guideline for assault offences.

It applies to both magistrates’ and Crown courts, and covers the most frequently sentenced of these offences — inflicting grievous bodily harm, actual bodily harm, assault with intent to resist arrest, assault on a police constable and common assault.