‘Ministers say 3m earning and learning schemes will plug the UK skills gap but critics say new levy is yet another financial burden for businesses
The Guardian, 4th April 2017
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘Young people are a growing target for identity theft cases, which have reached record levels in 2016, fraud prevention organisation Cifas says. Almost 25,000 victims of fraud were aged under 30, with the number of under-21s defrauded rising by a third.’
BBC News, 15th March 2017
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘Today, the Sentencing Council has published two new sentencing guidelines. One covers how courts should make a reduction in sentence for offenders who admit their guilt, and the other deals with the approach they should take when sentencing children and young people.’
Sentencing Council, 7th March 2017
‘Criminal justice agencies are at risk of failing children and young people who come forward to report crimes because they are not being taken seriously, Victims’ Commissioner has today warned.’
Victims’ Commissioner, 22nd Febraury 2017
‘A world-renowned musician who admitted molesting three students has won an appeal against an indefinite teaching ban, after a top judge ruled the ban was “flawed”.’
The Guardian, 17th February 2017
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘An ex-council boss who forced teenagers to engage in sex acts to get grant payments has been jailed for 16 years.’
BBC News, 3rd February 2017
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘A transgender teenager is taking legal action against his former school for discrimination.’
BBC News, 2nd February 2017
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘It’s the UK’s leading cause of death for young people, but the way suicides are recorded may reduce the true number by 30-50% while perpetuating stigma.’
The Guardian, 9th January 2017
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘An internal Ministry of Justice (MoJ) assessment of restraint used against children and teenagers in young offenders institutions and secure training centres found that some techniques could kill or leave them disabled, it has been reported.’
Daily Telegraph, 6th December 2016
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
‘Young men don’t mature psychologically until their mid-20s. Condemning so many to the toxic environment of our jails is a recipe for reoffending and suicide.’
The Guardian, 1st December 2016
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘A High Court judge has severely criticised the Legal Aid Agency (LAA)’s actions in a case concerning a ward of court to whom a local authority had agreed to pay damages for the unauthorised release of information.’
Local Government Lawyer, 17th November 2016
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘A teenager has won a £3m legal battle against her ex-boyfriend’s family after she fell off a “badly trained” horse and broke her back.’
The Independent, 12th November 2016
Source: www.independent.co.uk
‘Thousands of people, politicians, celebrities and refugee charities have backed a campaign to stop a teenager who fled to Britain from Afghanistan as a 10-year-old after his father was murdered from being forcibly removed to the country of his birth.’
The Guardian, 10th November 2016
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘Pressure is mounting for a public inquiry into the adoption of hundreds of thousands of babies born to unmarried women over a 30-year period amid claims from some mothers who say they were coerced into handing over their children. A letter will be sent to the home secretary, Amber Rudd, next week from solicitors at two eminent law firms calling on her to convene a public inquiry into historical adoption practices in the UK. The solicitors say an inquiry would uncover the truth about the practices – stretching over three decades after the end of the second world war – and hold agencies to account.’
The Guardian, 4th November 2016
Source: www.guardian.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
‘Too many magistrates in England and Wales are “old and white”, one of the youngest justices in the country says.’
BBC News, 19th October 2016
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘The Ministry of Defence has said it is “extremely sorry” for the death of an Iraqi teenager who drowned after being “forced” into a Basra canal by four British soldiers.’
The Independent, 16th September 2016
Source: www.independent.co.uk
‘Every day, the Youth Justice Legal Centre, set up by the youth justice charity Just for Kids Law, sees the criminal justice system failing young people. Now a growing body of opinion agrees it is time for reform, says Laura Cooper.’
Legal Voice, 8th August 2016
Source: www.legalvoice.org.uk
‘Test case against Met police and Islington council brought on behalf of 14-year-old boy by Just for Kids Law, which says cells are not fit places for children.’
The Guardian, 21st July 2016
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
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