The legal profession has reacted coolly to government reforms that will force offenders to attend their sentencing.
Prime minister Rishi Sunak announced yesterday that he would give judges the power to order offenders to attend their sentencing hearings, with those who refuse facing an extra two years in prison.
Labour has told the prime minister to get on with the change. Shadow justice secretary Steve Reed said: ‘Labour called for offenders to be forced into court for sentencing in April last year. This is now the fourth time in over 18 months we’ve heard this from the government – but still no timeline for doing it. If the Tories don’t act, Labour will.'
However, Jessica Maguire, an associate at Corker Binning, said the threat of an extra two years behind bars is an imperfect remedy. ‘The most recent high-profile offenders who refused to attend their sentencing hearing, Lucy Letby and Thomas Cashman, both faced mandatory life sentences and therefore the threat of an additional two years is unlikely to act as a deterrent or to incentivise defendants facing life sentences to attend hearings,’ Maguire said.
‘In addition, where is the line to be drawn? What if defendants attend court for sentencing but close their ears and eyes, turn their back on the court or otherwise disrupt the sentencing process?’
Bar Council chair Nick Vineall welcomed the Ministry of Justice’s decision to leave it to judges to decide how best to deal with an offender. ‘Judges will use their discretion to guard against the danger of allowing a convicted defendant to disrupt sentencing hearings.’
Red Lion Chambers’ Kate Bex KC told Channel 4 News: ‘The latest figures for the backlog are the worst that they have ever been. So rather than focusing on putting two years on to a whole-life tariff, I would rather the government focus on actually getting trials underway, getting more judges appointed, so there isn’t a backlog of almost 64,000 cases.’
High-profile blogger The Secret Barrister criticised Sunak for posting on X (formerly Twitter) that he would do ‘everything possible to make sure victims have the chance to look their perpetrator in the eye and witness justice being served’.
The Secret Barrister said: ‘Says the man who has enthusiastically supported the defunding of the entire criminal justice system. Record delays, record backlogs, record shortages of judges, lawyers and staff. Record numbers of victims of crime being denied justice. Cheap gesture politics don’t change that.’
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