22 November 2022
Help! The police are arresting my child …
It’s the knock on the door that parent fear, or is it just me? Thankfully, the Courts have provided some valuable guidance about this nightmare scenario.
There are many reasons the police may want to speak to your child, but few occasions where the reason might be urgent enough to justify an unannounced visit and an arrest.
30 October 2020
GOWISELY: Time to stop and think about stop and search
The aftermath of the death of George Floyd and the strength of feeling surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement should provide Police forces in the UK with a reason to re-assess their relationships with the communities that they serve.
8 March 2020
Joe Marler and the case of the arched eyebrow
Props are well known for their fondness of the ‘dark arts’ of Rugby, but over the weekend (7 March 2020) the England prop Joe Marler went a step further. In this blog, Matthew Hardcastle looks at the situation and explains whether it should be considered sexual assault or not.
11 September 2019
Challenging the prosecution of weak cases and the lack of anonymity for those accused of sexual offences
The recent acquittal of our client, Oritsé Williams, once again puts a spotlight on the prosecution of rape and serious sexual offences, and the particular complexities faced by high profile individuals defending allegations of this nature.
30 August 2019
SFO guidance on co-operation: more carrot than stick?
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) was established to investigate and prosecute cases involving serious or complex fraud, a mission that inevitably leads it to the corporate sector. In 2010, it was given two significant tools in dealing with companies: a simple route to corporate criminal liability for bribery cases in the Bribery Act 2010 (the stick); and a means of incentivising a company fixed with corporate criminal liability to co-operate with the SFO by entering into a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) and so avoiding a conviction (the carrot).
