‘A 15-year-old boy and girl have been sentenced to a minimum of 20 years for the murders of a mother and daughter, who were smothered and stabbed in the throat as they slept in their beds.’
The Independent, 10th November 2016
Source: www.independent.co.uk
‘The murder of a teacher by one of her pupils during a class at a Leeds school could not have been predicted or pre-empted, an official investigation has found.’
the Guardian, 8th November 2016
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘Someone who commits a crime between the ages of 18 and 25 should not be treated as an adult by the criminal justice system, a group of MPs have said.’
BBC News, 26th October 2016
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
McPhee v The Queen [2016] UKPC 29
‘The defendant, a 17-year-old from Nassau, was arrested on a neighbouring island of The Bahamas on suspicion of murder following an armed robbery. He gave his mother’s phone number in Nassau to the police but no contact with her was established and no lawyer was called. After more than 31 hours in custody, during which time the custody log showed he had been taken from his cell several times but without any record made of his being questioned, a church minister in his mid-seventies was asked to come to the police station to witness the defendant make a statement. The minister did not speak to the defendant alone nor offer him any advice, but observed that the defendant was hungry and gave the police money to buy him a meal, after which the defendant made a written statement under caution confessing to the murder. Apart from the confession the only evidence against the defendant was that of another defendant who became a prosecution witness during the trial. At trial, the defendant claimed that his statement had been made following torture and so was not admissible. The judge rejected the claim of torture but did not consider whether the taking of the defendant from his cells had been for the purpose of informal interrogation, or whether the minister could properly be said to have been acting as an “appropriate adult” for the witnessing of a juvenile’s confession, and allowed the confession to go before the jury. The defendant was convicted of murder. The conviction was upheld by the Court of Appeal of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas. The defendant appealed to the Privy Council on the grounds, inter alia, that the confession should have been excluded under section 20 of the Bahamas Evidence Act as being unreliable, by reason of the defendant having been subjected to unrecorded questioning in the absence of a lawyer or appropriate adult and in any event should have been excluded as unfair under section 178 of the Bahamas Evidence Act.’
WLR Daily, 24th October 2016
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
‘A former police superintendent has been found guilty of sexually abusing boys in the 1980s at a Home Office attendance centre for young offenders and at a children’s home.’
The Guardian, 21st October 2016
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘Review to examine if signs of deviant behaviour were missed in boy and girl, now 15, who killed Elizabeth and Katie Edwards.’
The Guardian, 19th October 2016
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘A teenager has been hit with a criminal record for a “killer clown” stunt near an infants school as the escalating craze sparked calls from police chiefs to remove fancy dress from shop shelves.’
Daily Telegraph, 11th October 2016
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
‘A teenager who stabbed two strangers to death in Essex in 2014 has lost his appeal against a minimum term of 27 years’ detention.’
The Guardian, 28th September 2016
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘Levels of violence in young offender institutions have been described as unacceptably high, with inmates and staff facing the daily threat of beatings and stabbings.’
BBC News, 12th September 2016
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘Levels of violence in young offender institutions have been described as unacceptably high, with inmates and staff facing the daily threat of beatings and stabbings. The government is promising a thorough review of the system. But what’s life like for young people who get locked up?’
BBC News, 12th September 2016
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘An influx of Eastern European criminals risks clogging up the criminal justice system and placing an extra burden on its finances, a senior Old Bailey judge warns. His Honour Judge Tim Pontius also expresses concern at the surge in historic sex abuse cases which he called “troubling”, while conceding that the system is struggling to cope with young Islamist terrorists.’
Daily Telegraph, 7th September 2016
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
‘A third of homeless 16 and 17-year-old offenders in England and Wales are being placed in unsafe or unsuitable accommodation, a report has found.’
BBC News, 7th September 2016
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘A 20-year-old man who stabbed his younger half-brother to death during an argument over how the teenager was speaking to their mother has been jailed for life.’
The Guardian, 30th August 2016
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘The number of under-18s detained under the Terrorism Act when entering or leaving the UK has more than tripled over two years, new figures suggest.’
BBC News, 28th August 2016
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘The Home Office approved plans to carry out drug trials on children at two schools for young offenders in the 1960s, according to files released by the National Archives.’
The Guardian, 22nd August 2016
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘A teenager who launched a cyber attack against parenting site Mumsnet – forcing it to reset millions of passwords – has been sentenced.’
BBC News, 2nd August 2016
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘A 16-year-old has been sentenced to 14 years in custody for the murder of 22-year-old Tom Webb, who was stabbed to death in the centre of Derby in January 2016.’
Crown Prosecution Service, 29th July 2016
Source: www.cps.gov.uk
‘The Metropolitan police may be overly targeting black and ethnic minority youths as gang members, resulting in them being treated more harshly by the courts, prisons and justice system, a review has found.’
The Guardian, 19th July 2016
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘Two teenage girls have been detained for more than three years each for kidnapping a child from a Primark store after luring her away from her mother with sweets.’
The Guardian, 18th July 2016
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
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