Features

As 2012 comes to a close, Toby Craig and Charles Hale look back at the high (and low) lights for Counsel  

A year to remember
At the beginning of the year, 2012 seemed full of promise. A London Mayoral election, a Presidential race, the final stages of LASPO lobbying, the Coalition Government still finding its feet, the Diamond Jubilee and of course, the London Olympics. With so much to play for, would it, could it, ever live up to all the hype..? It’s rarely good form to answer a question with a question, but how could you ever have doubted it? This was a year to live long in the memory. The changes have been seismic, the glories have been historic and the lows may leave a legacy more lasting than the regeneration of East London. 

A joyous occasion is marred by a spectre at the feast  

October 8, 2012: “The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men, Gang aft agley” - Robert Burns  

I had hoped that my junior, Miss Henrietta Briar-Pitt would be working on the looming case of R. v. Jason Grimble, alleged co-murderer of Britain’s least popular former circuit judge, Claude Allerick, who was shortly to be tried at the Central Criminal Court by Claude’s successor from the judicial charisma by-pass section. Instead of which, I was ensconced in her equestrian pile, due to give her away to Mr Justice Pennington, batchelor knight, until, that is, recent dietary indiscretions caused a parting of her garments at an eve-of-wedding supper, prompting an apparent withdrawal from the nuptial event. 

Sam Blom-Cooper and Francesca Delany escaped the Bar for a year to cycle across Europe and Asia to Cambodia. Here they report back to  Counsel 

“Don’t be ridiculous!” – Not the exasperated plea of a Head of Chambers nor the disapproving words of a concerned Senior Clerk, when informed of our plans to cycle across the world for a year, but the words of a somewhat over-sized and sweaty border-guard, patrolling the Iran-Turkmenistan frontier that marks the gateway to more than 500km of Karakum Desert sands. Our friendly immigration official seemed equally bemused, however, by our declining his offer of 8am shots of vodka as he was by our choice to head out onto the lonely and already melting desert highway. By 9:30am the thermometer would be nudging 50°C. Sticky tarmac and absurd heat notwithstanding, at least Francesca was now freed of the uncomfortably hot, conservative attire that crossing Iran had entailed. 

Having spent two weeks in the Lioness Mountains, Peter Smith turns the spotlight onto the developing justice system he encountered there.  

Mention Sierra Leone and one’s first thoughts are of a small, poor country in sub-Saharan Africa, the grimiest part of the continent, still recovering from a brutal insurgency that was only ended when Tony Blair sent British forces to intervene in 2000. 

Charlotte Rachael Proudman on the law surrounding forced marriage and the developments surrounding its criminalisation  

On Friday 8 June 2012 the Government announced that forced marriage will become a specific criminal offence. This follows the announcement in October 2011 that breaches of forced marriage protection orders (FMPOs) will likewise be criminalised. The legislation will not be introduced until the 2013/2014 Parliamentary session. 

The decision to criminalise forced marriage emanates from concerns that the current legal initiatives are not doing enough. Between January and May 2012, the forced marriage unit (FMU) provided advice and support in 594 cases and the numbers of reported instances increase each year. In addition to forced marriages occurring in Britain, the UK’s embassies and high commissions continue to rescue British victims who are forced into marriages overseas, and repatriate them back to the UK. Research carried out by the Department for Children, Schools and Families’ estimated that the ‘national prevalence of reported cases’ of forced marriages in England was between 5000 and 8000. 

The DSP is to the Armed Forces what the DPP is to civilians. Bruce Houlder QC DL, the first Director of Service Prosecutions, reflects upon his years in the role.  

In May 2008, after some 39 years at the Bar, I took up the challenge to create a new prosecuting authority for the Armed Services, and thus became the first Director of Service Prosecutions (DSP). The role was created by the Armed Forces Act 2006 which wrought significant changes to the service justice system. I am glad I took the leap. I have worked alongside intelligent, well motivated servicemen and women, and have been left with an enormous respect for the role they play in support of Service law and discipline, in the advisory sector, on operations, and as prosecutors. Initial difficulties and some avoidable obstructions were soon swept away, and a well respected joint prosecuting authority has emerged. 

Do the Right Thing is a charity through which disabled people take part in the training of others. Graham Hopkins explains how the Bar could benefit when training its members in how to deal with vulnerable witnesses.  

With some cracking one-liners and visual jokes, the Dublin director Damien O’Donnell’s 2004 comedy-drama “Inside I’m Dancing ” makes a powerful plea for equality for disabled people in society. There are undoubtedly convincing and strong performances from the lead actors. But therein also lay the film’s controversy. As BBC critic Neil Smith pointed out, O’Donnell, by “casting able-bodied actors as his wheelchair-driving protagonists unavoidably weakens his argument.” 

Neelam Sarkaria asks whether it is time for the first prosecution under the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003  

The making of an allegation of Female Genital Mutilation is affected by a number of factors, including cultural taboo and the reluctance to report the crime to the police, especially as other family members may be involved. This makes it even harder for the victim to come forward to report the crime and to make a statement. Criminal justice agencies are working closely together to raise awareness and to ensure that whenever cases are reported, they are thoroughly investigated. Support and protection is also offered to victims and witnesses throughout the criminal justice process. Educating communities to abandon the practice is considered the best way forward to break the cycle of mutilation. 

From January 2013, as QASA (Crime) starts to roll out across the country, judges will be the evaluators of the advocacy in Crown Courts. Here,  Counsel looks at the training the judiciary is receiving and the criteria it will have to apply.  

An essential element of any quality assurance scheme is confidence in the integrity of the process. When the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (Crime) (‘QASA’) begins to roll out in January 2013, all Crown Court advocates who do trials will be evaluated by the judiciary. How can the judges, given the role of assessing the quality of advocacy in their courts, produce results which are consistent and based on the advocacy itself? To answer that question, and before the scheme goes ‘live’ on any circuit, every judge who has agreed to take part must undergo a seminar training. 

Job title: Silk, Doughty Street Chambers 

Doughty Street Chambers is a human rights and civil liberties practice with a national and international profile in criminal, civil, administrative, public and international law.  

You represented Tony Nicklinson – who suffered ‘locked-in’ syndrome - in his landmark case challenging the law on assisted dying. How did you become involved in that case?
Tony’s case is a progression of the work I have done throughout my career around autonomy and choice.  I have a public law and human rights practice which emphasises, among others, the rights of persons with disabilities. Autonomy links the right to make end of life decisions with, for example, the right of disabled persons to live independently in the community, and both are features of my practice. I represented Debbie Purdy in her successful appeal to the House of Lords which resulted in the DPP issuing his guidelines on prosecution in assisted suicide cases. The solicitor in Debbie Purdy’s case, Saimo Chahal, and I have worked together for many years so it was a natural fit for us to do so again for Tony and his family, who are carrying on the case now Tony has died.