Acid Attacks – What’s the law on sentencing?
Introduction Nobody could have been failed to be moved by some of the horrific cases that we have seen of people who have been attacked by having acid thrown over them. Unsurprisingly, this has lead to...
View ArticleIan Paterson – AG to refer the sentence to the Court of Appeal
We looked at the unusual case of Ian Paterson, a surgeon who was jailed for 15 years on 31st May 2017 following his conviction for causing grievous bodily harm (mostly with intent) by carrying out...
View ArticleGayle Newland gets 6 years after her conviction at a re-trial
Introduction We have looked on several occasions at the curious case of Gayle Newland (here’s the piece on conviction, and a Guardian article from earlier this week) who was convicted on a re-trial....
View ArticleChristopher Boswell – Immediate custodial sentence quashed for shooting a...
Introduction We have looked previously at whether sentences for animal cruelty are too short, and it is clear that it is something that is of wider concern. On 24th July 2017 the Daily Mail published a...
View ArticleKathryn Smith – appeal against conviction dismissed but sentence reduced
Introduction We looked last year at the conviction, and sentence, of Kathryn Smith for the murder in 2014 of her 22 month old daughter Ayeeshia. On 31st July 2017, the Court of Appeal handed down...
View ArticleWhen is a medical professional guilty of manslaughter? Appeal in Honey Maria...
Introduction Cases of manslaughter are infinitely varied, and many raise exceptionally complicated questions of law and fact. One such area is when medics, normally doctors but it can be any, are...
View ArticleIan Paterson – Court of Appeal increases his sentence to 20 years
We looked in May at the case of Ian Paterson, the surgeon who was sentenced to 15 years after being convicted of carrying out unnecessary surgeries on his patients. When sentence was passed, we said...
View ArticleRobin Milner pleads guilty of being drunk in charge of a horse
The beauty of the law is that whatever hypothetical scenario you come up with, you will find that someone in real life has beaten you to it … So it was on 18th August 2017 when this story – “Man admits...
View ArticleViscount St Davids abandons appeal, goes back to prison
We looked previously at the conviction and 12 week prison sentence of Rhodri Phillips, the 4th Viscount St Davids, as well as his being bailed pending his appeal that was due at the beginning of...
View ArticleWayne Rooney gets two year ban for drink drive
Introduction and Facts Wayne Rooney, the Everton and Manchester United player who recently retired from international football at the tender age of 31, had a fairly bad day at the office on 17th...
View ArticleLavinia Woods gets a suspended sentence – are the Courts biased in favour of...
Introduction On 17th May 2017, Lavinia Woods, a 24 year old medical student with the ambition of being a surgeon, pleaded guilty to stabbing her boyfriend in the leg. There was an inevitable debate...
View ArticleAaron Barley gets life for double murder of family who helped him
Introduction and Facts In March 2016 Aaron Barley was a homeless man who was sleeping in a box outside a supermarket Stourbridge. He met Tracey Wilkinson, who was by all accounts a compassionate woman,...
View ArticleAlice McBrearty – teacher jailed for sex with her 15 year old pupil
Introduction and Facts Last week the case of Lavinia Woods raised again the question of whether women get different (meaning more favourable) treatment from the Courts. On 6th October 2017, we saw...
View ArticleMinimum sentences for acid attacks (and a review of weapons sentencing)?
Introduction We looked previously at the law relating to ‘acid attacks’, an area about which there is a lot of public interest at the moment. It seemed to us that there were plenty of laws on the books...
View ArticleHoliday fraud couple jailed for fake illness scam
Introduction and Facts It was the perfect crime. Or, at least, it appeared to be – go on holiday and then, when safely home, make a fake claim for ‘illness’ suffered whilst you were away. It’s been in...
View ArticleSentences for ‘drivers who kill’ to be increased?
Introduction Currently, the maximum sentence for causing death by dangerous driving is 14 years, compared to a maximum of life for those who take somebody’s life as a murder or manslaughter. That is...
View ArticleDawn Davies jailed for sexual abuse, but is there a lacuna in the law?
Over a period of time, Dawn Davies (36) sexually abused an 11 year old boy by forcing him to have sex with her. She denied it, but was convicted by a jury of sexual activity with a child under 13. On...
View ArticleRebecca Palmer – 5 years for false rape allegation
Introduction and facts Cases where false allegations of rape (or other sexual offending) are prosecuted are very rare, but they always attract the attention of the media. Recently, the case of Rebecca...
View ArticleKeith Shaw – Judge gets a suspended sentence for fraud
Oh dear. We have had dodgy lawyers before unfortunately. Too many of them really – here’s a recent example and QC who got jailed, someone dodgy who impersonated a lawyer, a law lecturer and a CPS clerk...
View ArticleLavinia Woodward tries to appeal her sentence
We looked in September at the case of Lavinia Woodward, the Oxford medical student who received a suspended sentence for stabbing her ex-boyfriend. The sentence caused quite a lively debate, both here...
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