Human rights – Right to a fair hearing. The European Court of Human Rights held that the United Kingdom had breached art 6(1) of the European Convention on Human Rights due to the delay in the criminal proceedings against the applicants for murder. Although there were no specific incidents of outright dilatoriness attributable to the prosecuting and judicial authorities, and the applicants' own actions had greatly contributed to that delay, the overall length of the proceedings had been excessive and had failed to meet the reasonable time requirement.