Tom Little QC appeared for the Attorney General, the Solicitor General and the Crown Prosecution Service in all four unrelated cases involving five notorious offenders including Wayne Couzens. The applications were heard by a five judge constitution of the Court of Appeal comprising the Lord Chief Justice, the President of the Queen’s Bench Division, the Vice President of the Court of Appeal (Criminal Divison), Mr Justice Sweeney and Mr Justice Johnson. In upholding the whole life order in Wayne Couzens the Court of Appeal accepted Tom Little QC’s submissions. The judgment will be a necessary reference point in the future in any case in which a Judge is considering whether to impose a whole life order or not. The judgment can be found here.
The report of the National Audit on Group-Based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (“grooming gangs”) was published on 16th June. The Government confirmed the same day that action would be taken on each of the Audit’s 12 recommendations through introduction of legislation, police operations to…
This week Sarah Prager KC joins forces with Rebecca Huxford of Stewarts to bring news of a jurisdictional challenge in which (perhaps somewhat unusually) practical and logistical factors were placed front and centre. Practical and Logistical Factors in Challenges to Jurisdiction The High Court of…
On 21 May 2025, Mrs Justice Theis handed down a series of judgments, decided over several months from July 2024 to May 2025, in care proceedings concerning siblings who were the subject of physical and emotional abuse perpetrated by their parents. One parent was a…
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