The Defence Brief

I seem to be constantly departing from my main aim of talking about motoring law on the rare occasions I manage to write a blog but today the Times today ran an appalling story(£££) that serves only to sensationalise the public’s perception of how rape and sexual assault trials are conducted and can do nothing but put victims in fear of going to the police following an attack. They also included reference to the Ched Evans proving that once accused you can never escape these allegations even after acquittal - here's what I had to say about Evans case at the time . According to the Times a study of 550 trials conducted over a two-year period found questions about a complainants sexual past were put in three-quarters of cases, which seems to suggest that the rules preventing this are being improperly circumvented. The Times goes on to assert that 44% of complainants were only told that they would face such questions after the trial had begun. Sadly, not a single one of t...

Ched Evans Before I begin, I will say that at around 4,500 words this is probably the longest blog I’ve ever posted but I think it’s all necessary to set the scene for this case and explain the background that has been largely ignored or airbrushed in the press. Despite its length, I have not attempted to include every little detail of either fact or law but have done my best to provide a balanced picture of the Ched Evans case, what happened and why the courts reached the decisions they did. There has been so much written about the Ched Evans case over the past weekend, much of it based on a very shaky grasp of the facts and law, that I decided I would read up about the case and weigh in (hopefully on a slightly firmer footing than most of the articles I’ve read so far). Broadly speaking there seem to be three groups who have opinions on the case: 1.        Sexual violence groups (including people describing themselves as “radical feminists”...

We must decide on the best way to use limited police resources The police have a lot of work to do and ever fewer police officers to do that work. Priorities are therefore a must. If I were a senior police officer, I would want to be setting priorities to focus on dealing with situations and offences that can help people who are currently suffering and finding offenders where there’s actually a prospect of a conviction following. By and large I’m sure this is what the police do. But, they also prioritise historic sexual offences. I can understand why they would prioritise sexual offences, recent ones and cases where abuse is ongoing, but when it comes to historic allegations I am at a bit of a loss. Obviously, the victims of these offences may still be suffering today. That’s terrible. But, when an offence took place decades ago you have to wonder at the urgency. Take the case I read about from Cambornetoday . A woman says she was sexually assaulted by a man when...

Tom Hayes sentenced to 14-years imprisonment for Libor fraud This afternoon came the news that former City trader for UBS and Citi Bank, Tom Hayes, has been convicted and sentenced to 14-years imprisonment for his part in fixing the London interbank offered rate (Libor).   According to the news sites, Libor was manipulated by so many traders that one has to wonder why anybody trusted it at all.   It also begs the question why only Mr Hayes has been prosecuted when the media report that discussion of Libor fixing was rife in the City. So, what did he do?   First, I don’t claim to be an expert in banking but so far as I understand it Libor is the interest rate at which banks lend to each other.   Each bank reports the interest rate it is paying to the British Bankers Association each morning, which then sets the Libor rate based on an average of those rates after eliminating the highest and lowest rates reported.   Because the Libor rate is used...