Top Rape Defence Barrister

A judge had been wrong to undertake a trial of an issue concerning a defendant’s alleged conduct prior to an offence that had neither been admitted nor proved by verdict and further erred in using his findings against that defendant to form the basis of an assessment of dangerousness under the Criminal Justice Act 2003. […]

The court considered and gave guidance on the principles applicable to the new mandatory sentencing provisions for the protection of the public from dangerous offenders contained in Criminal Justice Act 2003 s.224 to s.229 and the factors that judges should take into account when deciding whether one of the new sentences must be imposed.