15-year extended sentence for man who carried out ‘sadistic attack’
BBC News reported on 5 September 2016 that Attar Khan had been sentenced to an extended sentence following a conviction for a “sadistic attack”. It was described as being ‘jailed for 11 years’, which...
View ArticleChristine Hewitt : MEP’s Chief of Staff sentenced for expenses fraud
Introduction Brexit means Brexit, so we are told, with just a few minor details to work out. One UKIP activist, Christine Hewitt – the Chief of Staff for Janice Atkinson MEP for the South East Region,...
View ArticleLauren Jeska – athlete admits triple stabbing
Introduction and Facts Lauren Jeska was a successful athlete, a 41 year old fell runner, when she fell into dispute with British Athletics. For reasons that aren’t clear, on 22nd March 2016 Ms Jeska...
View ArticleJames Fairweather – sentence upheld in the Court of Appeal
Introduction and facts Earlier this year we covered the case of James Fairweather, the Essex teenager who killed two people whilst aged only 15 in 2014. These were brutal and senseless murders. One...
View ArticleIain Farrimond – Senior Crown Prosecutor jailed for Attempted Murder
Introduction Lawyers, like any other people, can get in trouble with the law, as we have noted on many occasions in the past. One case that caught our eye (and was referred to us by several people) is...
View ArticleMark Sharp jailed for pouring boiling water on his girlfriend’s dog
Introduction We have looked on several occasions at the question of whether the sentence available for animal cruelty offences are too short. On 3rd October 2016 there was another potential example of...
View ArticleArthur Simpson-Kent gets a whole life tariff for murder of his family
Introduction We covered the case of Arthur Simpson-Kent when he pleaded guilty in June 2016 to the murder of his partner Sian Blake, and their two children Zachary (aged 8) and Amon (aged 4). This got...
View ArticleOne punch manslaughter and ‘moral luck’
Earlier in the week, we received a request to take a look at the one punch manslaughter case of Richard Eveleigh. Eveleigh, 63, and his friend, Paul Lightowler, 60 watched Liverpool’s Europa League...
View ArticleMarie Staniforth wins appeal against prison sentence for animal cruelty
Introduction Earlier this week we asked (again) the question of whether sentencing for animal cruelty offences is too lenient. Well, on 8th October 2016, we came across another potential example...
View ArticleMichael Danaher jailed for life for book murder
Introduction Earlier this year Adrian Greenwood, a 42 year old book dealer, was stabbed to death at his Oxford home, seemingly over a rare first edition. On 24th October 2016 Michael Danaher, a 51 year...
View ArticleWhat if they are innocent? Justice for people accused of sexual and child abuse
Note: The following blog is reproduced with the permission of OUP. The original can be found here. Many people watching the UK television drama National Treasure will have made their minds up about the...
View ArticleWhy was Nathan Sumner not guilty of Attempted Murder?
Sometimes we get asked questions, or receive requests to cover a specific case, and when we do then we try (day job permitting) to answer them sometimes, as with this, a bit late. Last week Nathan...
View ArticleSteven Barker – solicitor given Suspended Sentence for faking parking permit
Introduction We have frequently looked at cases of ‘dodgy lawyers’ – those that find themselves on the wrong side of the dock (start here for a QC who found himself in prison). On 27th October 2016 we...
View ArticleEmma-Jayne Magson jailed for life for stabbing her boyfriend
Introduction and Facts In the early hours of 27th March 2016 Emma-Jayne Magson, a 23 year old woman from Leicester had an argument with her boyfriend James Knight (aged 26). It is not clear what the...
View ArticleSimon Buckden jailed for cancer lies
Introduction and Facts It was a heartwarming story – Simon Buckden, a 44 year old veteran of Bosnia, both Gulf Wars and Northern Ireland, announced that he would run 100 marathons in 100 weeks to raise...
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Puppy Factory owners convicted of animal cruelty
Introduction We have looked recently at cases that raise the question of whether the maximum sentence for animal cruelty offences are too short. On 18th November 2016 there was another example that...
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Thomas Mair get whole life sentence for killing Jo Cox MP
Introduction The murder, and we can now call it murder officially, of Jo Cox, the MP for Batley and Spen on 16th June 2016 shocked the UK and the world. It was, in effect, a political assassination...
View Article45-year sentence for “corpse sex fetishist”
On 14 December 2016, Richard Ford was sentenced to 45 years’ imprisonment, following guilty pleas to 10 counts of making a threat to kill. What happened? Ford was a serving prisoner, having been...
View ArticleRalph Clarke – 101 year old convicted of historic sexual abuse
Introduction A few decades ago the idea of trying someone in their nineties for things that allegedly happened many years before would have seemed an alien one But, as society changes, and life...
View ArticleMichael Heseltine fined for Dangerous (sic) Driving
Introduction Former Deputy Prime Minister, Tory Politician and (to some, even if it is not true) brutal dog killer Michael Heseltine is a well known ‘big beast’ of 20th Century politics. But even...
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