In Focus

An amendment to the Criminal Procedure Rules has formalised the procedure to be adopted by the Court and the prosecution when an offender has provided assistance to the investigators. Such a change is long overdue and practitioners would do well to master...

Practitioners will be familiar with defending in modern slavery cases where the s45 defence is advanced. This brings with it procedural, evidential and disclosure challenges from the timing of NRM referrals and receipt of conclusive grounds, to admissibility...

For conduct which even on a conservative view probably occurs frequently, the offence of insider dealing contrary to 52(1) of the Criminal Justice Act 1993 is not regularly prosecuted. It is an infamously technical offence, with no fewer than eight...

Art Not Evidence is a coalition of lawyers, MPs, journalists, artists, academics, youth workers, music industry professionals and human rights campaigners who have come together to combat, as they perceive it, the misuse of rap music as evidence in UK...

This article seeks to provide a summary of the work done by Jonathan Fisher KC and his team in the Fraud Disclosure Review, why it was thought necessary and what are the next steps moving forward in light of the publishing of his preliminary findings. It...

Priya Malhotra considers the key findings of the report and what it means for those known to be affected. In July 2017, the former Prime Minister Theresa May announced an Inquiry into the use of infected blood and infected blood products. Today, Sir Brian...

The UK government has not been shy about its desire to make the UK a hub for cryptocurrency business and trading. Tentative plans from the Bank of England to launch a digital pound, for instance, can be seen trumpeted on the Bank’s website; perhaps not...

When can a jury be agreed and, at the same time, hung? This intriguing question is posed (and answered) by R (Yusuff) [2024] EWHC 692 . Background In the latter part of 2023 and early 2024, three men were tried in relation to the death of a...

In the light of the first conviction under this Act just this week at Southend Magistrates Court [1] , we examine the new criminal offences created by the Online Safety Act 2023. The Act received Royal assent on the 26th October. The legislation itself can...

Case:  Rex v Thomas Casserly [2024] EWCA Crim 25 On 16 May 2022, in the Crown Court at Chester, the appellant, Thomas Casserly, was convicted after trial of a single count of "sending an indecent or grossly offensive electronic communication...