Balancing Act

The sentence passed on disgraced TV person Stuart Hall has attracted a predictable mob reaction that it was too short, so it is good to read a considered and informed analysis here. Sentencing can be a delicate thing to get right, and in many cases (such as this one) there is no 'right' answer.
Incarcerating an 83 year-old serves only as a punishment and a possible deterrent, and the prison authorities will be obliged to make special provision for him.  Once an offender reaches a certain age, he has already been by time's fell hand defac'd, and the time approaches when nature will wreak its havoc on him, mocking anything that the justice system can inflict. The trickle of very old men who were involved in the Holocaust has slowed but I often wondered what would be achieved by punishing them.

To Sir, With Love

A teacher who ran away to France with a besotted 15 year-old pupil is currently on trial for child abduction, and his fate will now be in the hands of a jury. The press are meticulously avoiding any mention of the girl's name, as they must because there is almost certainly a court order against her being identified. Unfortunately the order is pointless because her name and much more was all over the press before they were run to ground in France and the teacher was charged. A Google search against his name will turn up the girl's in a trice.
It is standard procedure in any case involving a  child to make a CYPA order prohibiting the publication of anything that might serve to identify the young person involved, but that's a fat lot of good if the press have been running the story for days in loving detail. The law about identifying children is a mess, as protection from publicity only kicks in once the case goes live. I cannot think of any remotely practical way of getting round this problem.

Carelessness And Luck

Today a group of would-be Islamic terrorists were jailed at the Old Bailey, continuing the authorities' run of success in dealing with such aspiring murderers. Of course there is nothing to say that they may not succeed one day: as one who lived through the IRA campaign from 1969, I well remember the phrase "We only have to get lucky once, you have to get lucky all the time".

This latest gang were careless to use an uninsured car, and to turn up, absurdly, after their targets had gone home for the day. The police were lucky to seize the car that was later discovered to be loaded with weapons and explosives. Finally, having lost the incriminating car and been sent on their way, the men missed a priceless opportunity to get out of the UK before the car was searched.

They now have a very long time to contemplate what went wrong for them.

Food For Thought

Here is a thought-provoking piece. The massive reorganisations of recent years have piled resources into central management, while cheese-paring at a local level. I have never seen any credible figures for the net savings realised, if indeed there were any.

Speaking Of Traffic.......

I drive a popular 1600cc hatchback, and along with millions of other people I have a satnav device. The satnav has a speed readout that shows the car's speedometer to over-read by 3 mph at 30, up to 6mph at 80. My previous car was the same.

A couple of points arise from this:- firstly, that if I set the cruise control at the limit in long camera-monitored roadworks, I am going about 4 mph faster than other drivers who are relying on their speedometer reading. Secondly, I am unimpressed by people who grumble about getting a ticket for doing, say, 36mph in a 30, because their speedometer almost certainly read nearer 40.

I know a lot of people who have done speed awareness courses (including several colleagues, a District Judge, legal advisers, and my own daughter) and all but the most cynical have admitted that the course is useful and thought-provoking.

Useful Updates

This is a useful site for those who wish to keep up with changing traffic laws.

Bluff And Nonsense

This morning's papers dutifully report (here is The Guardian's effort) plans to increase fines for some run-of-the-mill traffic offences. Inevitably, the offences will be assessed by police who will decide whether or not to issue a fixed penalty.

These measures will be utterly ineffective in changing drivers' behaviour, for the same reason that the ban on mobile-phone use has left huge numbers of drivers unimpressed:- to detect and punish these offences there needs to be a police officer or two on the spot, and  traffic patrol cars are now a rarity. I use motorways several times every week and I cannot recall the last time that I saw a proper jam-sandwich patrol car, unless it was hammering down the outside lane on its way to a call with lights and sirens going full blast.

In court careless driving can attract a fine of up to £5000 and three to nine penalty points, allowing the bench wide discretion to assess the offence. The new arrangements will have no visible effect on drivers' behaviour, and those in charge know it perfectly well.

It's Only Perruque And Roll

It is reported that a relative of a man who had just been sent to prison took it upon himself to attack the Judge at Ipswich Crown Court. The oaf responsible is probably one of the many people whose only reaction to not getting their own way is to lash out violently.This time he chose the wrong place to do it.

Inevitably he was restrained and arrested, and tonight he is sitting in a cell to await his appearance before a different judge from the one he assaulted. Only a prison term can be right here, and my guess would be a term of a month or two, or perhaps more. We do need to deter this kind of thing, as it strikes at the heart of a judicial system based on reasoned deliberation.

From the reports, Hizonner showed proper sang-froid, and he was fortunate that there were a couple of police officers in court to back up the security staff.

This kind of  thing is mercifully rare, even down in the magistrates' courts where security is thin on the ground, and few police officers are likely to be available. In two and a half decades I have never felt unsafe on the bench; let's hope it stays that way.

Told You So

The unloved and largely ineffective Anti-Social Behaviour Order is slowly slipping out of use (which is not to say that none has ever worked). Two weeks ago I sat on a bench that imposed an ASBO on a confused Eastern European woman who was making a nuisance of herself on a regular basis. On Friday she was in the cells and back on my list for breaching the Order. The Guidelines suggest that she will go inside this time, and given her apparent lack of a normal reasoning process she may be facing the Revolving Door syndrome.
There must be a better way

No Need To Advertise

I was on the rota to sit a few days ago (Bank Holiday Monday). Our main courthouse dealt with all of the work that has come in since Saturday from the three London boroughs that make up our Local Justice Area. We opened two courtrooms, and the duty clerk told us that we had 22 people downstairs in the cells at ten o'clock. Inevitably there were delays while the CPS and defence solicitors sorted themselves out, so we didn't get started until nearly half past ten.
We saw the usual mix; a few breaches of bail, in which we had to decide whether or not to re-bail or remand in custody, a couple arrested on warrant for failing to turn up at court, some drug dealers arrested in warrant-backed raids on their homes, and some assaults.
One of the bail breachers had been on a 'doorstep' curfew from 7 till 7, and had simply got on a bus and gone to meet his mates. The police don't check every doorstep curfew every night, but our man got involved in a bit of a ruckus four miles from home. He tried giving a false name, but the Livescan fingerprint machine soon identified him, and he  was held overnight to be brought to court. A couple of youths were in the mix, and one sixteen year-old sticks in my mind. A skinny youth, he was uncommunicative and his body language made it clear that he wanted to express defiance. As I addressed him (using, as we must, his first name) he half turned to make it clear that he wasn't interested in what I had to say. His bail breach was so blatant that we sent him off to Feltham, to be brought before a youth court later in the week.
The men ( and they were all men or boys) who had been held overnight were all in custody because of previous bail breaches or simply their previous records.
We were all done by about two o'clock, so we were off into the sunshine, as the Serco prison vans prepared to pull out of the yard at the back.