Welcome to the ICLR Criminal Law Updater for June 2014. Here’s our round up of the reportable and unreportable criminal cases decided in the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) and the UK Supreme Court over the last four weeks. Where a transcript is available on BAILII, a linked reference has been provided.

Reportable Cases

R v Ahmad (Shakeel) [2014] UKSC 36; [2014] 3 WLR 23; [2014] WLR (D) 264, SC(E)

18 June 2014

CRIME — Sentence — Confiscation order — Where the court, in confiscation proceedings, found that the benefit of the relevant criminal conduct had been jointly obtained, each defendant was liable for the whole of the amount of the benefit and no apportionment was to be made between the co-defendants. However, to avoid double recovery by the state, where there was finding of joint obtaining, so that the confiscation order in respect of each defendant was made for the value of the whole benefit, the order would contain the condition that it would not to be enforced to the extent that a sum had been recovered by way of satisfaction of another confiscation order made in relation to the same joint benefit.

Regina (T) v Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police and others (Liberty and others intervening) [2014] UKSC 35; [2014] WLR (D) 271, SC(E)

18 June 2014

CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION — Disclosure — Police  — The provisions in Part V of the Police Act for the automatic release of a person’s convictions, cautions and warnings— regardless of their relevance or the length of time that had elapsed— when that person was required, by reason of articles 3 or 4 of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975, to obtain and disclose an enhanced criminal record certificate for the purpose of obtaining employment or some other position which involved working with children or other vulnerable groups of persons, did not meet the requirement of legality for the purposes of article 8 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and so was incompatible with the person’s right to respect for their private life guaranteed by that article. Moreover, the provisions contravened article 8 in that they were not “necessary in a democratic society”, as required by article 8.2.

 R (Nunn) v Chief Constable of Suffolk Constabulary  [2014] UKSC 37; [2014] WLR (D) 265, SC(E)

18 June 2014

CRIME — Evidence — Prosecution evidence — Where, after a defendant’s trial had ended in his conviction, material came to light which might cast doubt on the safety of the conviction, the prosecutors’ duty of disclosure required him to disclose that material to the defendant, unless there were good reason not to do so, and, where there was a real prospect that further inquiry might reveal such material, to make that inquiry. There was, however, no indefinitely continuing duty on police or prosecutors to respond to whatever inquiries the defendant might make for access to case materials to allow re-investigation.

 R v Bina  [2014] WLR (D) 251, CA

11 June 2014

CRIME — Illegal immigrant — Assisting unlawful immigration — There was no limitation by which the offence of assisting unlawful immigration, contrary to section 25(1) of the Immigration Act 1971, was inapplicable in relation to asylum seekers. Further, section 25(3) of that Act was permissive only, so that a matter of foreign law might be proved by methods such as expert evidence or admission as well as by a government-issued certificate as set out in section 25(3).

Unreportable Cases

Regina v Ashford [2014] EWCA Crim 1244; [2014] CN 1134, CA

CRIME — Restraint order — Variation — Whether evidence to support restraint orders —Whether amount of restraint orders should be capped

Regina v Ferdinand and others [2014] EWCA Crim 1243; [2014] CN 1124, CA

CRIME — Homicide — Murder — Expert evidence from consultant podiatric surgeon —Whether flawed

Regina v Docherty (Shaun) [2014] EWCA Crim 1197; [2014] CN 1111, CA

CRIME — Sentence — Offences against the person — Wounding with intent — Change of sentencing regime between conviction and sentence — Whether sentence excessive because principle of lex mitior not applied

Regina v Murphy (Philip) [2014] CN 1116, CA

CRIME — Evidence — Admissibility — Bad character — Complainant’s bad character —Whether bad character material properly excluded — Criminal Justice Act 2003, s 100

Regina v Richards (Jason) and another [2014] EWCA Crim 1196; [2014] CN 1088, CA

CRIME — Homicide — Murder — Fresh evidence from second defendant exonerating first defendant — Whether capable of belief

Regina v Barnsdale-Quean [2014] CN 1078, CA

CRIME — Homicide — Murder — Whether loss of self-control defence should have been left to the jury — Coroners and Justice Act 2009, ss 54, 55

Regina v Yasain [2014] CN 1104, CA

CRIME — Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) — Appeal — Defendant convicted of various offences and sentenced to consecutive terms of imprisonment — Conviction of one offence quashed on appeal — Whether fair for Court of Appeal to increase sentence for remaining offences

Regina v Welsh [2014] EWCA Crim 1027; [2014] CN 973, CA

CRIME — Sentence — Drugs — Whether sentences manifestly excessive

Regina v Hussain (Abrar) [2014] CN 962, CA

CRIME — Sentence — Confiscation order — Valuation — Goods which could not lawfully be sold — Whether black market valuation to be adopted

Regina v Thompson (John) [2014] CN 1028, CA

CRIME — Sentence — Confiscation order — Later change of law — Whether substantial risk of injustice to justify late appeal

About the citations in this Updater

There are four types of citation included in this updater:

• Neutral Citations (e.g. [2014] EWCA Crim 1196) – these are publisher-neutral case references. These references, when clicked, will refer you to BAILII (where a transcript of the decision is available).
• References to published law reports (e.g. [2014] 1 WLR 123) – these are references to the various series of law reports published by ICLR. These references, when clicked, will refer you to the law report of the case on ICLR Online. Please note that you must be an ICLR Online subscriber to access these cases.
• References to the WLR Daily (e.g. [2014] WLR (D) 265) – these are references to the case summary service provided by ICLR. The WLR (D) case summaries are reserved for those cases that appear to be reportable and are free to acess.
• ICLR Case Notes (e.g. [2014] CN 973) – these are summaries of unreportable cases and are only accessible to registered ICLR Online subscribers.