About
A free weekly collection of criminal law links - for practitioners, law students, and anyone with an interest in the criminal justice system of England and Wales.
Curated by Sam Willis, a barrister at 5 King's Bench Walk.
News
'Specialist rape courts rolled out across the country'
Backed by a multi-million cash injection, every Crown Court in England and Wales will get at least one courtroom especially set up to hear rape and serious sexual offence cases over the next two years, helping to hold more perpetrators to account. Transforming how the justice system treats the survivors of some of the most serious crimes, the changes are designed to encourage more victims to come forward, providing them with private entrances and waiting rooms as well as facilities equipped to pre-record evidence and observe sentencing remotely. Rape and serious sexual offence cases will also now be prioritised in courts. These trials will be given a fixed date as opposed to being placed on floating lists where they can be moved at short notice and delayed by many months...
The changes announced today will also see all court staff get trauma-informed training and a trial to give victims of sex offences a single point of contact to ensure their needs are met during the court process. The new measures also include a new Rape Justice Taskforce, drawing leaders from across the criminal justice system to tackle the rising rate of postponed rape trials and confront the myths that cause victims to withdraw from their own cases...
'Crown court backlog hits new record - but MoJ stays silent on jury trials'
The government has issued a fresh pledge to bring down the Crown court backlog after new data showed the open caseload has hit a new high. However, a statement from justice minister Sarah Sackman and guidance from the Ministry of Justice notably fails to mention jury trial reforms. Figures for April to June 2026 show the open caseload reached a ‘series peak’ of 80,829 by the end of June 2026 – up 392 on the previous quarter...
Guidance provided by the ministry outlines various steps being taken to bring down the backlog, such as the recently announced specialist rape courts, lifting the financial cap on Crown court sitting days and extra funding for criminal legal aid. Plans to curb jury trials are notably absent – however, in a sign that the controversial reforms might not necessary be off the table, the guidance states that magistrates’ courts ‘continue to deal with triable either way offences more than four times faster than at the crown Court’...
'Court rejects sentence appeal after police officer used AI to create statement'
The Court of Appeal has rejected a sentence appeal by a man who threatened his partner with a knife, after it emerged a police officer had used AI to draft a witness statement. The court heard the officer, who has been removed from front-line duties, used Microsoft Copilot to create a statement to "make a judge or reader weep" and help secure the highest sentence...
Mr Justice Lavender, sitting with Lord Justice Edis and Mr Justice Linden, said the officer had instructed AI to create "the most impactful personal statement". The officer was said to have told it: "I want you to create it so that it meets the higher harm category." The judge also said he told the AI that its "goal is to reach the highest sentence" and instructed it "to make a judge or reader weep". Lavender said: "These facts were not AI-generated hallucinations, but things F had stated in her interview. It does not appear that the use of AI, deplorable though it is, caused the appellant's sentence to be any longer than it otherwise would have." The judge added: "We do not consider that the total sentence was manifestly excessive"...
'We need YOU - government launches another recruitment drive for magistrates'
A second recruitment drive to recruit ‘thousands more’ magistrates has been launched – nine months after the first was announced. The £4m initiative, launched this week, is the largest ever, the Ministry of Justice said. Nearly 3,000 magistrates have been appointed as part of the government’s aim to have a 21,000-strong magistracy by 2028/29. In 2022, there were around 12,500 magistrates. The Magistrates’ Association has previously said if recruitment and the rate of exodus continue at the current rate, it would take nine years to reach the government’s target...
A new national taskforce working with local recruitment committees across England and Wales aims to streamline the magistracy recruitment process to cut the time taken to recruit magistrates, historically a long-winded process, by more than half...
'Juvenile murder sentence rule doesn't breach human rights, says Supreme Court'
Scrapping a law that could have shortened a man's prison sentence because he committed murder as a child was not a breach of human rights, the Supreme Court has ruled. Jesse Quaye, then 17, and Ayomindy Bile, then 15, murdered Connor Barrett in Hemsby, Norfolk in 2014 - leading to both being jailed for life with a minimum term of 15 years. But a later change in the law meant Quaye could not ask for a review of that minimum term, because he had turned 18 before he was sentenced. The Supreme Court's decision to reject his appeal ends the legal battle over juvenile life sentences in the UK courts - but the case could potentially be reopened at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg...
After their conviction, Quaye, by then 18, and Bile were jailed at Her Majesty's pleasure - the legal term for a life sentence given to child killers. Under long-standing legal principles, a juvenile who is sentenced to murder can ask for their minimum term to be reconsidered once they have served half of that time. That policy and other juvenile sentencing laws take into account evidence that some serious offenders rehabilitate in their 20s as they mature. However, Parliament voted in 2022 to block juvenile killers from seeking a review if they had been sentenced after they had turned 18. The new law meant Quaye could no longer ask for a review of his minimum term and the 29-year-old remains in prison, prompting him to mount a legal challenge. Lawyers for Quaye had argued that his treatment amounted to a breach of the ban on arbitrary detention, retrospective punishment and discrimination based on age in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). In 2024, two High Court judges ruled that Quaye's treatment breached those safeguards - but the Court of Appeal later reversed that decision...
Cases
Neil Cox v DPP [2026] EWHC 2437 (Admin)
... On the morning of 22 August 2023 the Appellant, Mr Neil Cox, was walking along a public footpath called Middlewood Way in the vicinity of Macclesfield. He was entirely naked. Whilst walking on the footpath he encountered an off-duty Detective Chief Inspector out for a morning jog, and then two women, each on their own, on their way to work. The Appellant was subsequently charged with one offence of disorderly or threatening behaviour likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress, contrary to section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986 (“the 1986 Act”)...
... a) Were we incorrect to decide that the Appellant’s behaviour in being naked on a public footpath in the particular circumstances of this case was disorderly so as to amount to an offence under section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986? No.
b) Did we wrongly elide two elements of the offence in reaching our conclusion that awareness that some people may be upset by nakedness meant that walking naked could properly be regarded as threatening or disorderly? No.
c) Did we fail to give “disorderly” an appropriately narrow construction, in accordance with section 3 of the Human Rights Act 1998? No.
d) Did we wrongly reject the defence of reasonableness? No.
e) Were we incorrect to determine that the Appellant’s rights under Articles 8 and 10 ECHR: (i) did not affect our rejection of the defence of reasonableness; (ii) did not make a conviction for the section 5 Public Order offence an unreasonable or disproportionate interference with those rights; and (iii) were impaired no more than is necessary to accomplish the legitimate objective, by imposing a criminal sanction on the Appellant? No, in each case.
f) Were we correct in dismissing the Appellant’s appeal against his conviction in the circumstances and context of this case? Yes.
Sex Matters v DPP [2026] EWHC 2449 (Admin)
... The claimant challenges the legality of guidance issued by the Director of Public Prosecutions (“DPP”) to specialist Crown Prosecutors who prosecute rape and sexual assault cases. The relevant part of the guidance is entitled Deception as to Sex (“the Deception Guidance”) and forms part of the Rape and Sexual Offences (“RASSO”) legal guidance. The core of the claimant’s case is that the Deception Guidance is legally flawed because it is premised on the basis that a suspect’s deception as to their asserted gender identity is capable of vitiating the complainant’s consent to sexual activity under section 74 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 (“the SOA”)...
No appellate case has so far considered a deception as to gender identity in the context of section 74 SOA. As our review of the case law shows, the appellate authorities are difficult to reconcile, so that outcomes in particular cases are hard to predict with any confidence. Three examples suffice. First, it is not easy to see why a deception as to whether a condom will be worn, with its obvious risk of an unplanned pregnancy, is capable of negating consent (Assange) but a deception as to fertility, entailing a similar risk, is not (Lawrance); in both instances the deception might be thought fundamental to the activity the complainant believed she was consenting to, and the prevention of pregnancy was one of the factors specifically referred to in Assange (para 49 above). Secondly, as we have noted, it is hard to see how the decision in Jheeta is compatible with the approach identified in Monica and applied in Lawrance. Thirdly, in contrast to the emphasis in Lawrance on the physical performance of the sexual act, the Court in BVA held that a deception as to the filming of the act negated consent on the particular facts. The decisions are highly fact-sensitive and, as was said in BVA, “there may be no bright lines to draw” (para 70 above). The law is still developing in this area...
... For the reasons we have explained at paras 123-134 above, we do not accept that a suspect’s deception as to their gender identity is incapable of vitiating consent to sexual activity for the purposes of section 74 SOA whatever the circumstances. In order to avoid any misunderstanding, we emphasise that our decision goes no further than that. We do not conclude that a deception as to gender identity will negate a complainant’s consent to sexual activity; whether or not a particular deception has that effect will fall for consideration on the basis of the circumstances and evidence in the case in question. However, on the current state of the law we cannot conclude in advance of such cases arising that a deception as to gender identity could never negate a complainant’s consent and it would be unwise and inappropriate for us to do so...
Other
'AI action plan for justice: one year on'
An update on the first year of progress against the AI Action Plan for Justice and priorities for the year ahead.> Published in July 2025, the AI Action Plan for Justice set out the Ministry of Justice’s approach to the proportionate and responsible adoption of AI across the justice system. This update looks at progress made in the first year against the plan’s commitment to strengthen our foundations, embed AI across the justice system, and invest in our people and partners. It also introduces a new fourth strategic priority focused on identifying and responding to the emerging risks the justice system posed by AI. The update includes a link to a new Action Plan Explorer, providing specific detail on each action...
Obscurity
'Clarkson's Farm sheep 'theft' turns out to be a miscount'
The apparent theft of sheep from Jeremy Clarkson's Diddly Squat Farm was in fact due to a miscount by farm staff, police have said. Thames Valley Police first said it received reports on 2 September that the animals had been taken from the farm in Chadlington, Oxfordshire, within the last 10 days. The 66-year-old ex-Top Gear presenter told The Sun, external he discovered the animals were missing when he went to count his flock with Clarkson's Farm co-star Kaleb Cooper. But in an update issued on Tuesday, police said the reported theft had in fact been the result of an accidental miscount by farm staff. All sheep had since been accounted, the force said, adding that the investigation had now been closed...