I have written something for today’s Guardian. You can find it here. Hope you’re all staying safe. SB x
Read moreLives are being put at risk by the intransigence of the government and the courts. Jury trials must be suspended immediately.
UPDATE: At 8am on Monday 23 March 2020, the Lord Chief Justice announced a suspension of new jury trials. The details are vague, and hint at a resumption “where specific safety arrangements have been put in place”, but for now, at least, it seems as if a level of sense has prevailed. Regrettably the announcement came far…
Read moreThe Tories’ tough talk on crime is shameless and cynical
Something I wrote for The Guardian about the tough-on-crime rhetoric at the Conservative Party Conference is available here.
Read moreGuest post by Joanna Hardy: We need to talk about lunchtime
A few years ago, a poster was stuck up in the robing room at Snaresbrook Crown Court. There was to be a charity raffle. The prize? “Win lunch with the Snaresbrook Judges!”. This prompted much mirth. An unimpressed barrister scrawled beneath it “Second Prize: TWO Lunches”. Another quipped that they would rather eat their own…
Read moreThe justice system is failing to tackle our rape case scandal
Something I’ve written about the scandalous delays in the criminal justice system has found its way into the Thunderer column in The Times today. It can be read here (£).
Read moreA letter to my younger pupil-self
For this month’s Counsel Magazine, I have written a letter to my younger pupil-self, offering some words of advice that I wish I’d been given when starting life at the Criminal Bar. The piece can be read here.
Read moreThe meaning of justice
This will be (for now) my last word on the Tommy Robinson appeal. My legal analysis based on the facts as we now know them deals exhaustively and exhaustingly with the law; my reflections at the conclusion of that piece on whether I was too hasty to assume the correctness of the procedure, I stand…
Read moreLunch with the FT
I had the pleasure of a spot of lunch with Barney Thompson, legal correspondent at the Financial Times, for the “Lunch with the FT” feature in this weekend’s edition. Given the profile of interviewee normally invited (recent guests include Woody Harrelson, Anthony Scaramucci and Jacinda Ardern), this is an honour I most certainly don’t deserve,…
Read moreYour questions answered on the John Worboys judgment
On Wednesday 28 March 2018, the High Court handed down its landmark judgment in the case of John Worboys, upholding the challenge by two of his victims to the Parole Board’s decision to release him. The judgment runs to over fifty pages and does not make for easy reading, so here’s my breakdown of this…
Read more