AUGUST 2009
5. John Kiely, a loan shark who made £2.9m over a five-year period by collecting debts from families on Manchester housing estates, was sentenced tofive years in prison for offences including blackmail and illegal money lending.6.Two armed robbers posing as clients stole Events: Crimes and Legal Affairs 1095
jewellery worth £40m from Graff Diamonds in Mayfair.13.Riam Dean, a 22-year-old law student, won a claim for wrongful dismissal against Abercrombie & Fitch;
the company considered that Ms Dean, who has a prosthetic arm, had breached its ‘look policy’ by wearing a cardigan on the shopfloor and moved her to stockroom work.
SEPTEMBER 2009
4. Samantha Joseph, aged 17, was jailed for life for leading 16-year-old Shakilus Townsend into an ambush where he was stabbed to death; seven gang members involved in the attack received prison sentences ranging from ten to 15 years. The high court ruled that a transsexual serving life for manslaughter and attempted rape should be moved to a women’s prison, as holding her in a men’s prison violated her human rights.6.The home secretary, Alan Johnson, announced that he had released a suspected terrorist from a control order; the release came as a result of a ruling by law lords in July 2009 that the control orders placed on the suspect and two other men were illegal.9.Michael Shields, a Liverpool football fan jailed for the attempted murder of a barman in Bulgaria in 2005, was pardoned by the justice secretary, Jack Straw, after new evidence came to light.14.Four men received life sentences, with minimum terms of between 22 and 40 years, for planning to use liquid explosives to launch terrorist attacks on transatlantic planes; three men were convicted of planning the attack, the fourth of conspiracy to murder.17.Police confirmed that David Lace, whose body was exhumed in August 2009, was almost certainly the man who murdered 22-year-old Teresa de Simone in 1979; Sean Hodgson, who served 27 years of a life sentence for the crime, had been released in March 2009.
23. The director of public prosecutions (DPP), Keir Starmer, issued draft guidance, effective immediately, to clarify under what circumstances people would be prosecuted for assisting a suicide; the law lords had ruled in favour of an appeal, brought by Debbie Purdy, for the clarification of the law in July 2009.25.A report by the National Association of Probation Officers revealed that the proportion of veterans in the prison population had more than doubled in the last six years; military veterans represented 6 per cent of the total on probation, and 8.5 per cent of the prison population.28.An inquest into the deaths of Fiona Pilkington and her daughter, Francecca Hardwick, ruled that the police and council officials were partly responsible for their deaths as they had failed to respond effectively to Ms Pilkington’s complaints; Ms Pilkington killed herself and her 18-year-old daughter, who had severe learning difficulties, following years of abuse from local teenagers.
OCTOBER 2009
5.Paul Allen was jailed for 18 years for his role in the theft of £53m, Britain’s biggest cash robbery, from a Securitas depot in Kent in 2006. Human remains were found in a bin bag by the M5 motorway near Bristol, and were identified two days later as the body of Melanie Hall, who disappeared in 1996, aged 25. 6.The lord chief justice, Lord Judge, issued new sentencing guidelines recommending indeterminate prison terms with no fixed release date for gun traffickers. 7. A 68-year-old man from Essex was jailed for 12 years for raping his daughter over a 33-year period and fathering two of her children.12.The court of appeal dismissed an appeal by the Ministry of Defence against a ruling in July 2009 that the armed forces compensation scheme should
apply not only to the initial injury of service personnel but also to subsequent disabilities resulting from appropriate medical treatment; the MoD had argued for a narrower interpretation that would allow it to cut the compensation to two injured soldiers. Trafigura, a multinational oil tradingfirm, obtained a secret injunction preventingThe Guardianfrom reporting the proceedings of parliament, in particular a parliamentary question tabled by the MP Paul Farrelly about Trafigura’s injunction (obtained in September 2009) preventing publication of the Minton report on its alleged dumping of hazardous waste in Côte d’Ivoire in 2006; the injunction was communicated to other UK media and also became binding on them, but was dropped after the parliamentary proceedings and the existence of the injunctions were reported on Twitter and the internet, and by foreign media and the magazinePrivate Eye(see also Arts and Media 14 October; International Events, Africa 20 September).28.James Yates, who was serving seven years in prison for supplying the gun used to kill 11-year-old Rhys Jones in 2007, had his sentence increased to 12 years after his original sentence was referred to the court of appeal for being unduly lenient.
29.Neil Strachan and James Rennie were jailed for life for sexually assaulting children and running a paedophile network; six other defendants were imprisoned for various shorter terms. Marlon King, a Premier League footballer, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for sexually assaulting a woman in a nightclub in 2008.
NOVEMBER 2009
10.The justice secretary announced an increase in the minimum prison sentence for murders involving knives from 15 to 25 years, to make the sentence comparable to the 30-year minimum for murders involving guns.
11.Anne Darwin, jailed in 2008 for collaborating with her husband to fake his death and claim insurance money, was ordered by Leeds crown court to repay £591,000 within 12 months; John Darwin had to repay a nominal sum of £1 as all their assets were in his wife’s name.
18.The high court ruled that agencies such as MI5 and MI6 could use secret evidence to defend themselves in civil cases if disclosure would affect national security, and that the ‘closed’ court procedure used in such instances in criminal cases could be extended to civil cases; the ruling was in relation to a case brought by seven British former detainees at Guantanamo Bay, who are claiming damages from the intelligence services and government for aiding and abetting their unlawful imprisonment, extraordinary rendition and ill-treatment in detention (see4 May).21.
A 400lb car bomb partially detonated outside the Northern Ireland policing board’s headquarters but no one was injured.22.Jane Andrews, a former dresser to the Duchess of York, escaped from East Sutton Park open prison where she was serving a life sentence for the murder of her boyfriend in 2000; she was found by police on 25 November. 26.The home secretary refused to block the extradition of Gary McKinnon to the USA on medical grounds; the 43-year-old Asperger’s sufferer admitted to hacking into 97 US military and NASA computers during 2001 and 2002, but argued in his defence that he was only looking for information on alien technology.
DECEMBER 2009
3.The Metropolitan Police shut down 1,219 websites falsely claiming to sell discounted designer goods, some of which passed on the credit card details of customers.
1096 The Year 2009–10
4.An Italian court sentenced Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito to 26 and 25 years’ imprisonment respectively for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy, in 2007; Rudy Guede had been sentenced to 30 years in prison for the murder in October 2008.
15. Vanessa George received an indeterminate prison sentence for abusing children in her care at a nursery in Plymouth, and for creating and distributing images of the abuse to Angela Allen and Colin Blanchard; Ms Allen also received an indeterminate sentence, but Mr Blanchard’s sentencing was adjourned as he was expected to face further charges. 16. Peter Tobin, already serving life sentences for the murders of Vicky Hamilton and Angelika Kluk, was found guilty of the murder of 18-year-old Dinah McNicol in 1991, and was sentenced to a full life term.17.Mehmet Goren was sentenced to life in prison for killing his 15-year-old daughter, Tulay Goren, in an ‘honour killing’ in 1999 because the family disapproved of her boyfriend. The BBC paid £25,000 in libel damages to Trafigura for alleging onNewsnightthat the company caused deaths, miscarriages and long-term injuries by dumping hazardous waste in Côte d’Ivoire in 2006 (see alsoInternational Events, Africa 20 September).
JANUARY 2010
11.Thefirst criminal trial without a jury to take place in England and Wales for over 400 years began at the high court in London, after a judge ruled that there was a significant danger of jury-tampering; four defendants were accused of the robbery of a warehouse near Heathrow airport in 2004, and were found guilty and sentenced on 31 March. 12. The European court of human rights ruled that the use of police stop and search powers was illegal as they were too widely drawn and lacked safeguards against abuse; the home secretary, Alan Johnson, decided that the UK police would continue to use stop and search powers pending the outcome of an appeal against the ruling.14.Lord Justice Jackson, a court of appeal judge, published a report outlining proposals for changes to civil litigation.18.A high court judge ruled that control orders against two terrorist suspects were unlawful, and that the men were entitled to claim damages from the government for the three-and-a-half years that their movements were restricted.20.Frances Inglis was given a life sentence for the murder of her brain-damaged son Thomas, who she killed with an injection of a lethal dose of heroin.22.Two brothers, aged 10 and 11, were given indeterminate sentences for a prolonged attack on two boys, aged 9 and 11, in Edlington, where they threw heavy stones at them, tried to strangle them and sexually assaulted them, leaving both seriously injured.25.Kay Gilderdale was cleared of attempted murder at the high court for providing her daughter, who had ME, with a lethal dose of morphine to inject herself. Paul Hutchinson was given a life sentence for the murder of Colette Aram in 1983; the case was thefirst reconstruction to appear on Crimewatchbut Mr Hutchinson was only arrested in 2009 owing to advances in DNA technology.27.The supreme court ruled that ministers acted unlawfully in freezing the financial assets offive al-Qaeda suspects without a vote in parliament.
FEBRUARY 2010
4.A coroner ruled that Dr Daniel Ubani, an out-of-hours doctor who was on his first shift in Britain, had unlawfully killed 70-year-old David Gray when he mistakenly gave Mr Gray ten times the normal dose of the painkiller diamorphine. 8. Commander Ali Dizaei, a
senior officer in the Metropolitan Police, was sentenced to four years in prison for misconduct in a public office and perverting the course of justice. 9. Mohammed Atif Siddique, thefirst person to be found guilty of terrorism charges in Scotland, had his most serious conviction overturned by the appeal court after serving almost half of an eight-year sentence; he was released from prison immediately as he had served his full sentence for two lesser terrorism offences.10.The court of appeal ruled that 71-year-old Davender Ghai had the right to be cremated on a traditional open-air pyre after his death, according to his religious beliefs as a Hindu.15.At the inquiry into the death of the Iraqi civilian Baha Mousa, the commander of the regiment that detained him admitted condoning inhumane practices and admitted responsibility for his death.16.The Ministry of Justice published a comprehensive review into the workings of juries; it found that two thirds of jurors did not fully understand judges’ legal directions before retiring to consider their verdict, and 26 per cent of jurors on high-profile cases had seen information about the trial on the internet. 25. The director of public prosecutions publishedfinal guidelines to clarify the law on assisted suicide; the guidelines included 16 factors that would favour prosecution and six factors that would mitigate against prosecution, including whether the victim reached a clear decision to commit suicide, and whether the suspect reported the suicide to the police (see 23 September).
MARCH 2010
5.Lance Corporal Joe Glenton was sentenced to nine months in a military prison for going absent without leave; he left Britain to avoid being redeployed to Afghanistan in 2007.8.Peter Chapman was sentenced to life in prison for the kidnap, rape and murder of 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall; Mr Chapman created a false profile on Facebook to befriend Miss Hall and persuade her to meet him. 12. Angela Gordon and Junaid Abuhamza were given indefinite prison sentences for the manslaughter of Ms Gordon’s seven-year-old daughter, Khyra Ishaq; she died from an infection in 2008 following months of starvation imposed on her as a punishment by her mother and stepfather. 15. The government pledged to scrap family court fees, which can be up to £4,800 a case, as the high costs were deterring some social service departments from applying for a court order for vulnerable children. 16. Five-year-old Sahil Saheed was released 12 days after being kidnapped at gunpoint during a family holiday in Pakistan;five people were arrested the following day.18.Chrisdian Johnson was jailed for life for the murder of Christopher Ogunyemi; he was placed at the crime scene by analysing DNA from his dog, which had been stabbed during the attack, the first time animal DNA has been used as evidence.19.The son of Sir Edward and Joan Downes was told that he would not be prosecuted for assisting his parents’ suicide, as the DPP ruled that it would not be in the public interest. 31. A policeman was cleared of assaulting a protester during a vigil for Ian Tomlinson, who died during the G20 protests in April 2009; the judge ruled that the footage of Sgt Smellie hitting the protester did not show the full story. The court of appeal ruled that the media would be permitted to report on certain hearings in the court of protection, which deals with the affairs of those who lack capacity to make their own decisions.
Events: Crimes and Legal Affairs 1097
APRIL 2010
9.Loloahi Tapui was found guilty of fraud for showing her employer, the attorney general Baroness Scotland, documents which she falsely claimed gave her the right to work in the UK; Ms Tapui had been an ‘overstayer’ in the UK for four years.14.The trial began of three companies accused of health and safety breaches in connection with an explosion andfire at the Buncefield oil depot near Hemel Hempstead in 2005, the two other companies involved having already pleaded guilty; the three companies were found guilty of all charges in June (see 16 July).16. A ban on the laboratory-produced drug mephedrone came into force after being rushed through parliament; it was classified as a Class B substance. Corby borough council agreed to an out-of-court settlement with 19 people born with deformities caused by toxic dust from a former steelworks in the town, ending an 11-year legal case.21.The supreme court ruled in favour of two men who challenged the indefinite inclusion of their names on the sex offenders register without any chance of a review; the ruling paves the way for a review mechanism to be implemented.23.Sharon Shoesmith lost her case in the high court to prove that she was unlawfully dismissed as director of children’s services at Haringey council following the death of Baby P. Six members of the same family were convicted of torturing, killing and decapitating 26-year-old Michael Gilbert, who they kept as a slave at their house in Bedfordshire;
three were given life sentences, and three were given sentences ranging from six to ten years.26.Companies including Argos and Homebase admitted liability for the sale of leather sofas with the chemical DMF in them; they agreed to pay compensation of up to £20m to be shared between nearly 2,000 claimants who suffered medical problems after exposure to the chemical.27.A report into the death of Blair Peach, killed during a protest against the National Front in 1979, concluded that he was probably killed by a member of the Metropolitan Police riot squad; 3,000 documents were released that had previously been kept secret by the police.
MAY 2010
4.The court of appeal overturned a ruling that agencies such as MI5 and MI6 should be allowed to use secret information to defend themselves in civil cases (see18 November) and ruled that such cases should be tried in public.5.Jewellery and diamonds worth over £1m were stolen from De Beers and Tiffany & Co in a raid at the Westfield shopping centre, London.14.A Labour MP, Stephen Timms, was stabbed during his constituency surgery in East Ham, London; his injuries were not thought to be life-threatening, and a 21-year-old woman was arrested. Ian Davison, a white supremacist, was sentenced to ten years in prison for making ricin; he was thefirst Briton to be convicted for producing a chemical weapon.17.Bristol Crown courtfined Great Western Hospitals NHS trust £75,000 and ordered it to pay
£25,000 costs for a fatal accident in which a new mother, Mayra Cabrera, was given an anaesthetic instead of a saline solution in May 2004.21.Rachel Baker, a former care home manager, was sentenced to ten years in prison for killing a 97-year-old woman by injecting her with a lethal dose of painkiller; Ms Baker had been stealing prescription drugs from the residents to feed her addiction.24.Two boys, aged 10 and 11, were convicted of the attempted rape of an eight-year-old girl in Hayes, London, in October 2009.27.Stephen Griffiths, a PhD student from Bradford, was charged with the murders of
Suzanne Blamires, Shelley Armitage and Susan Rushworth. 29. Toxicology tests carried out on the bodies of two teenagers who were thought to have died as a result of taking mephedrone found that they had not taken the drug; the deaths of the two boys had led to a successful campaign to ban the drug (see16 April).
JUNE 2010
2.Derrick Bird, a 52-year-old taxi driver, shot dead 12 people and injured a further 11 in west Cumbria before killing himself. 16. The supreme court ruled that a suspected terrorist’s human rights had been breached by a control order that forced him to move 150 miles away from his family and friends.22. Sean Ganterton and Martin Durnell were given prison sentences of two years and 21 months respectively after systematically bullying and threatening two undercover reporters posing as a Muslim couple living on a Bristol housing estate for a Panoramadocumentary on racism. A 16-year-old boy was sentenced to a minimum of 14 years in prison for fatally stabbing 18-year-old Salum Kombo, after trading insults and threats on Facebook, in Bromley-by-Bow in September 2009. 29. The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, won a high court order to evict peace protesters from Parliament Square Gardens; the protesters’ appeal against the ruling was turned down on 16 July.
30.Rangzieb Ahmed won the right to appeal against his conviction for being involved with terrorist organisations, on the grounds that Britain was complicit in his torture after he was detained in Pakistan. The supreme court ruled that British soldiers in war zones are not protected by human rights laws when they are away from their base;
the decision reversed a ruling by the high court in 2008 that had awarded protection to soldiers in any circumstances, including in combat.
JULY 2010
3. Raoul Moat shot dead his former partner’s new boyfriend, and injured his former partner and a police officer two days after being released from prison; the police conducted a week-long search of the village of Rothbury, leading to his discovery on 9 July when, after hours of negotiations, Mr Moat shot himself. 7. The supreme court ruled that homosexual asylum seekers could not be deported from the UK on the grounds that they could conceal their sexual orientation in their home country.8.The home secretary, Theresa May, banned the police from using random stop and search powers pending a review of counter-terrorism legislation.11.The high court blocked the sale of a house by a father who owed more than £78,000 in child maintenance; the case was thefirst to make use of new powers to halt or reverse the sale of assets by parents who refuse to pay child support.12.Ibrahim Savant, Arafat Waheed Khan and Waheed Zaman were each sentenced to life in prison for planning a terrorist attack that involved detonating liquid bombs on transatlantic jets. Three police officers were shot and a further 24 injured in Belfast after protesters against the annual Orange Order parades became violent when riot police attempted to remove them.16.Peter Sutcliffe, the ‘Yorkshire Ripper’, who was given 20 life sentences for murdering 13 women, lost his appeal to be considered for parole, although the judge revealed that a mental health tribunal had concluded that it was safe to move him to a less secure unit. The five companies responsible for the Buncefield oil depot explosion in 2005 werefined a total of £9.5m for health and safety breaches (see14 April).21.The former owner ofThe 1098 The Year 2009–10