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Telegraph
21 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Withholding facts about suspects risks endangering the British public
How much does the public need to know about the background of suspected criminals? On Sunday, the shadow home secretary Chris Philp called on the Government to ensure that the immigration status and nationality of all offenders was published 'for each crime and as quarterly totals'. Otherwise, he said, 'we risk a repeat of the rape gang scandal where horrendous crimes were covered up because of the identity of the perpetrators'. Philp's reference to 'each crime' suggests he was referring to convicted offenders. But what happened with the grooming gangs was a scandal because allegations were not prosecuted or even investigated. The Conservative MP was responding to concerns that Warwickshire Police had not revealed the background of two men accused of involvement in the alleged rape of a 12-year-old girl in Nuneaton. In contrast to the earlier cases, those defendants were promptly charged. It's reported that the accused are asylum seekers from Afghanistan. But Warwickshire police, following national guidelines, have not confirmed that. On Monday, Nigel Farage accused the police of a 'cover-up' after officers reportedly advised local councillors not to disclose that the suspects were asylum seekers for fear of 'inflaming community tensions'. The Reform UK leader argued that police forces should release the name, address and immigration status of people after they were charged with a crime. Not to be outdone, the Home Secretary said on Tuesday that police guidance needed to be changed. Asked if she thought the immigration status and ethnicity of suspects should be disclosed, Yvette Cooper told the BBC: 'We do want to see more transparency in cases. We think local people do need to have more information.' She had asked the Law Commission to speed up its review of the restrictions on prejudicing criminal trials. In March, the Government's independent law reform advisers responded with a brief consultation paper, focusing on an aspect of its current inquiry into contempt of court liability. Final recommendations are expected in the autumn. After Axel Rudakubana murdered three young girls at a dance class in Southport in July 2024, Merseyside police disclosed that he had been born in Cardiff. But confirmation that the suspect was a British national did little to ease the growing but false belief that the massacre at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class was the work of an asylum-seeker. Reporters told the Law Commission that the widespread public disorder that followed was an indirect result of contempt laws. By constraining the information that public authorities could disclose, the law helped create an information vacuum into which misinformation, disinformation and counter-narratives could spread unchecked. That, said the Law Commission, raised the question of whether there should be contempt of court liability for those who risk prejudicing a criminal trial by releasing information in the interests of public safety or national security. Changing the law would provide a defence for the police. But it might also make it harder for the defendant to receive a fair trial. For example, publishing information about a defendant's past misconduct – even, for example, that the accused had entered the UK illegally – might in some cases be prejudicial. In practice, though, juries are expected to ignore whatever they may remember from the time of arrest. If a retrial is ordered in a notorious case, the second jury may be told that a previous jury had failed to agree. And if extremely prejudicial material has been published, the Law Commission suggested that a defendant could be tried by judge alone. It should be possible for incontrovertible facts about suspects – such as nationality – to be published at the time of an arrest without, as the law puts it, a 'substantial risk that the course of justice… will be seriously impeded or prejudiced'. As the Home Secretary recalled, Scotland Yard had announced in May that several individuals arrested under the National Security Act were Iranian nationals. Their immigration status was disclosed by the Crown Prosecution Service when three of them were charged, Cooper added. But good reasons must be shown for publishing anything about a suspect that is not necessary to avoid confusion with someone of a similar name. Some people are arrested but not charged while others are charged but not convicted. And there is a risk that merely reporting an individual's immigration status or nationality may be positively misleading. More important in assessing the threat to the public in terrorist cases is the suspect's religion – though this is not something a defendant can be required to disclose. As so often, there is a balance to be struck. If the police have to announce every suspect's nationality, immigration status, ethnicity and religion, cases will take longer to process and prejudice will be more likely. Far from deterring public disorder, it may provoke it.
Powys County Times
39 minutes ago
- Powys County Times
Starmer has ‘made a mistake' with plan to recognise Palestinian state
Sir Keir Starmer has 'made a mistake' in announcing plans to recognise Palestine as a state, Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said. The Government last week said it will recognise a Palestinian state in September unless Israel agrees to meet certain conditions, including a ceasefire and a revival of the two-state solution. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister reiterated that Hamas must release the hostages, sign up to a ceasefire, disarm and play no role in the government of Gaza. The Government will then make an assessment in September 'on how far the parties have met these steps', the Prime Minister said. During a visit to a farm in Little Walden, Essex, on Tuesday, Mrs Badenoch said she would never agree to recognising a Palestinian state while Hamas is still in power in Gaza. She said: 'Absolutely not. No. Hamas is a terrorist organisation. We should not be creating a new terrorist state. 'This is basic stuff, and I don't understand why Keir Starmer doesn't understand that.' The Tory leader added: 'Keir Starmer has made a mistake. What we need to focus on now is a ceasefire and getting the hostages home. 'We've been seeing images of a hostage who looks like he's being starved to death, forced to dig his own grave. This is what Hamas is about. 'Now is not the time to reward them for their atrocities and for the massacre they committed on October 7 by giving them statehood recognition. 'We want to see a two-state solution after a peace settlement done in the right way at the right time. It is not the right thing to do now. 'And I'm not surprised that British hostages like Emily Damari have condemned the Government for the approach they've taken.' Ms Damari, a British-Israeli woman who was held hostage by Hamas for more than a year, has said she believes Sir Keir is 'not standing on the right side of history' after his conditional pledge to recognise Palestine. Mrs Badenoch's comments came as it was announced a protest will take place in London this weekend opposing Sir Keir's plans to recognise Palestine as a state. Demonstrators, including some British family members of hostages still held by Hamas, will march on Downing Street calling for the release of the remaining hostages before any talk about the recognition of Palestine. Marchers will include the relatives of Avinatan Or, who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival with his girlfriend Noa Argamani. Mr Or's cousin Ariel Felber, from London, said: 'Keir Starmer has failed the hostages and their families by not making it a condition that all the remaining hostages are brought home to their loved ones before he can even entertain talk of state recognition of Palestine. 'He urgently needs to correct this.' Steve Brisley from Bridgend, Wales, whose sister and nieces were murdered on October 7 and his brother-in-law Eli taken hostage, said: 'As British families of hostages and victims, devastated by the ongoing suffering of our loved ones, our emotional torture has been exacerbated by the suggestion that the UK may recognise a Palestinian state without securing the release of the hostages as an absolute precondition. 'This is not about politics. This is about basic humanity.' The family members are expected to be joined by Jewish leaders and other supporters on their National March For The Hostages through central London on Sunday afternoon. Tzipi Hotovely, Israeli ambassador to the UK, said on X that Hamas's actions 'must never be rewarded' as she highlighted the plight of one of the hostages, 24-year-old Evyatar David. Hamas released a video on Saturday which showed Mr David looking skeletal and hollow-eyed in a dimly lit Gaza tunnel. Ms Hotovely said: 'He is clearly malnourished and ill-treated. A shadow of his former self, his suffering is unimaginable. 'Like countless others who saw it, I was appalled by the sickening footage of Evyatar being forced to dig his own grave. 'This abhorrent footage shows Hamas for what they are – wicked terrorists who seek to inflict as much death, destruction and suffering on as many Jews and Israelis as they can. Their actions must never be rewarded.'
Daily Mirror
an hour ago
- Daily Mirror
Reform UK police chief's 'dark heart of wokeness' claim under fire
Rupert Matthews, who has defected from the Tory Party to Nigel Farage's rightwing outfit, claimed the UK needs 'to cut the dark heart of wokeness out of our criminal justice system'. Reform UK's new police and crime commissioner is under fire for calling the police's plan to tackle racism an 'abomination'. Rupert Matthews, who has defected from the Tory Party to Nigel Farage 's rightwing outfit, claimed the UK needs 'to cut the dark heart of wokeness out of our criminal justice system'. And he branded the Police Race Action Plan (PRAP) "the very epitome of two tier policing'. But experts slapped down his comments for 'fundamentally misrepresenting' the plan, which was created to address evidence that minority communities are treated differently by police. It comes after Nigel Farage came under pressure to distance himself from 'racist' Ant Middleton rant. In a Reform UK press conference on Monday, Mr Matthews, the Leicestershire and Rutland PCC, said: "The National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) recently sponsored the abomination that is the Police Race Action Plan. That concluded that people should be treated differently depending on which ethnic group they came from. 'That is a disgrace and the very epitome of two tier policing. We need to cut the dark heart of wokeness out of our criminal justice system and allow the police and courts to get back to what they're supposed to be doing, which is keeping our communities safe." Abimbola Johnson, the head of the police racism watchdog, told The Mirror: 'The suggestion that the Police Race Action Plan asks for people to be treated differently depending on their ethnicity fundamentally misrepresents the purpose and findings of the programme. 'The uncomfortable truth is that racially minoritised communities, particularly Black people, are already treated differently by our policing system. The intention of PRAP is to deal with those disparities. 'Unfortunately, there are people in power, like Mr Matthews, who use their position to undermine progress rather than push policing towards improvement in key areas such as anti-racism.' Last year, Black people were more than five times more likely to be stopped and searched than their white counterparts, while Black children remain six and a half times more likely to be strip-searched than white children. PRAP was first established in 2020, against the backdrop of George Floyd's murder by a US police officer and the worldwide Black Lives Matter protests that followed. But policing has long had a difficult history with black communities. In 1999, the Macpherson Report found that institutional racism contributed to the police's botched investigation into Stephen Lawrence's 1993 murder in London. It was a watershed moment in facing up to racism in the police. But progress has been slow. In 2023, Baroness Louise Casey's report after the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving Metropolitan police officer again found the force was institutionally racist. The Independent Scrutiny and Oversight Board, of which Ms Johnson is the chair, last month(JUL) found some improvements in its latest assessment of PRAP, including reforms to data collection of vehicle stops. But it warned issues still remain elsewhere, including serious data gaps when it comes to body-worn video cameras. Chief Constable Gavin Stephens, chairman of the NPCC, said: 'It remains the fact that Black communities have the lowest levels of confidence in the police, are three times more likely to be subject to police use of force, while Black children are disproportionately likely to be reported missing to the police. 'If communities don't trust the police, they won't come forward when they need help or support us with things like information to support our investigations. This then has implications for everybody. Improving confidence in the police benefits policing for everyone, and that is the driving force behind everything we are trying to do.' When contacted by The Mirror, Mr Matthews said: 'I believe that if you want to restore trust and confidence in the police then you need to treat everyone the same, no ifs, no buts. "The same rules should apply across the board. Background or indeed any other so-called difference should have absolutely no effect on the implementation of those rules. It should not take a national Plan and associated budget of millions in order to do unto others as you would have them do unto you.'
