If you have the dubious pleasure of riding the London Underground for your commute, you may have come across Transport for London's latest public information campaign. ‘Sexual offences and harassment have consequences,’ the poster states in block capitals. With the N in 'consequences' replaced by... a gavel.
Should we still be fighting what's clearly a losing battle against inappropriate gavels? Perhaps. The ad campaign is not only TfL’s but the British Transport Police and Mayor of London’s, too. All three entities have no excuse to not know that a gavel has never been used in the English courts. TfL is able to bring its own prosecutions, the mayor, Sir Sadiq Khan, was a practising solicitor and British Transport Police is, well, the police.
And yet, here’s a gavel. Although in practice it may not detract from an important message, it does make Obiter wonder how much attention anyone is paying.
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