Welcome to the April edition of our monthly Criminal Appeals Bulletin.
The Bulletin aims to highlight recent changes in case law and procedure in England and Wales, Northern Ireland, the Caribbean and Hong Kong and to provide practical guidance to those advising on appellate matters. Our monthly case summaries illustrate when an appellate court is likely to interfere with conviction or sentence, as well as looking at the courts’ approach to procedural matters.
The featured article focuses on a current appeal topic - in this editionEmma Goodallanalyses the framework for responding to AG references.
In this issue we also look at:
- The latest CACD conviction decisions on adverse inferences, admissibility of “confession” evidence, joint enterprise, joinder and improper comments in the prosecution speech, as well as sentencing vulnerable under age victims of sex offences.
- The NICA’s consideration of a DPP’s reference involving attempted murder, suspended sentences and predicting dangerousness.
- Hong Kong sentencing appeals dealing with drug trafficking, GBH, and abandonment.
- Financial Crime Appeals
Doughty Street has some of the most experienced appellate practitioners at the Bar, including the contributors to the leading works on appellate procedure - The Criminal Appeals Handbook, Taylor on Criminal Appeals, Blackstones Criminal Practice (appeals section), Halsbury’s Laws (Appeals).
Please feel free to e-mail us or to call our crime team on 020 7400 9088. We also offer our instructing solicitors a free Advice Line, where they can discuss initial ideas about possible appeals, at no cost to them or their client. More information on our services can be found on our website.
If you would like to know more, or discuss how our barristers may be able to help you and your clients, please contact Maurice MacSweeney, our Business Development Director, on 020 7404 1313 or Peter Finkill-Coombs, our Regional Business Development Manager, on 0161 618 1660.
