News & Advice

The offence of controlling and coercive behaviour has been on the statute books for a few years now but has recently hit the headlines.  Ruth Dodsworth is an ITV Wales presenter who met her ex-husband, Jonathan Wignall, in 2001. She became the primary income earner when his business started to collapse, and his alcohol intake… Continue reading Coercive and Controlling Behaviour

Draft revised sentencing guidelines have been produced to reflect recent Court of Appeal judgments. The guidelines clarify sentencing guidance for cases where no sexual activity occurs or where the targeted child does not exist. The revised guidelines are subject to consultation, which will close on 13th August 2021. The main revisions apply to offences of:… Continue reading Child Sexual Offences

A recent Court of Appeal case has ruled on the appropriateness of protective orders when a life sentence is in place. In GD’s case, the Court imposed a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) alongside an indeterminate life sentence.  On appeal, the question was whether making the SHPO was wrong in principle. GD had committed several… Continue reading Life Sentences with Further Orders

In 2006 the Association of Chief Police Officers, known as ACPO, founded a Criminal Records Office, now known as ACRO. The intention was for ACRO to organise the management of criminal record information and improve links between the records and biometric information. ACRO’s principal functions are providing police certificates, international child protection certificates and responses… Continue reading Deletion of Police Records

An evidence-based practice team from HM Prison and Probation Services have produced a report entitled “An evaluation of a brief intervention to reduce re-offending among women serving short sentences.” Over 12 months, a study was made of 255 women who were in the last 6-8 weeks of their sentence where that sentence had been less… Continue reading Women on Short-Term Sentences

Every prisoner is given a security category. For female prisoners, there are only two options, closed or open condition. For male prisoners, there are four categories, A to D. What do the categories mean? Female prisoners:  Closed conditions are for female prisoners who present too high a risk for open conditions; these are for those… Continue reading Prison Categorisation

During the Covid pandemic, there have been significant limits and halts to prison visits. Once we are out of lockdown, there should be a gradual return to standard visits, so what happens and what are the rules? The Prison Rules, in particular Rule 35, set out the entitlements to visits for prisoners. A prisoner is… Continue reading Prison Visits

Ofsted has announced a review into sexual abuse in schools. The review will consider the processes that schools, and colleges have in place regarding whether they are good enough to allow pupils to report abuse freely.  Why conduct a review? A website, “Everyone’s Invited”, published anonymised accounts of sexual abuse – many of the reports… Continue reading Sexual Abuse in Schools

The Criminal Cases Review Commission referred several cases to the Court of Appeal, which involved allegations of public order related to trade union activity. They included the case of the actor Ricky Tomlinson who had been convicted in 1973 of conspiracy to intimidate, unlawful assembly and affray and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment.  There was… Continue reading Non-Disclosure and Prejudice