UK > History > 2011 > Justice (I)

Knife crime teenagers

to face mandatory jail sentences

New sentencing policy will include
a 'two strikes and you're out' measure
covering serious sexual or violent crimes

Guardian.co.uk
Wednesday 26 October 2011
20.25 BST
Alan Travis, home affairs editor
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 20.25 BST
on Wednesday 26 October 2011.
A version appeared on p1
of the Main section section of the Guardian
on Thursday 27 October 2011.
It was last modified at 01.44 BST
on Thursday 27 October 2011.

A mandatory minimum four-month prison sentence for 16- and 17-year-olds who are found guilty of "aggravated" knife offences is to be introduced despite the open opposition of the justice secretary, Kenneth Clarke.

A new "two strikes and you're out" mandatory life sentence is also to be introduced for anyone convicted of a second serious sexual or violent crime – extending mandatory life sentences for the first time to cover crimes other than murder.

The definition of the "most serious sexual or violent offences" that will be covered by the new "two strikes" policy is to be extended to child sex offences, terrorism categories and "causing or allowing the death of a child".

The surprise announcement of this new sentencing regime marks a return to a more traditional "lock 'em up" approach to law and order by the coalition government and deals a further body blow to Clarke's hopes of a more liberal penal policy that would stabilise the prison population.

The package represents a major extension of the use of US-style minimum mandatory sentences into the British legal system and comes after a fierce cabinet battle.

Clarke is reported to have repeatedly clashed with the home secretary, Theresa May, over this issue behind the scenes.

It is believed to have only been settled on Wednesday by the intervention of David Cameron. Clarke appears to have won a concession that children under 16 will not be affected.

Clarke made clear his personal opposition to the use of mandatory sentences at a hearing of the Commons home affairs committee only on Tuesday, indicating he preferred to give judges unfettered discretion to set sentences based on the facts of the cases for nearly all crimes but murder.

He also made clear his view that a minimum mandatory sentence for juveniles under 18 was not part of the traditions of the British criminal justice system.

The sentencing regime announced on Wednesday night includes replacing the much-criticised indeterminate sentence for public protection, which has left 6,500 prisoners without a set release date, with new fixed-term sentences. Dangerous criminals will in future serve at least two-thirds of the new sentence.

The new sentencing regime detailed by the Ministry of Justice includes:

• A four-month mandatory custodial sentence for aggravated knife possession for 16- and 17-year-olds but not for younger children. Those convicted of using a knife or offensive weapon to threaten and endanger will be given a four-month detention and training order. Adults are to face an automatic six-month sentence for the same offence.

• A "two strikes and you're out" mandatory life sentence for anyone convicted of a second very serious sexual or violent offence, extending the life sentence beyond murder for the first time.

• An extended determinate sentence [EDS] for dangerous criminals convicted of a serious and violent sexual crimes, who will serve at least two-thirds, scrapping the current consideration of parole at the halfway point. Release for those in the most serious category serving this sentence will require the approval of the parole board. Those paroled will be under recall licence for at least 10 years.

• An extended licence period: those who have served an EDS will have to serve a further period on licence – an extra five years for sex offenders and eight years for violent offenders – during which they can be recalled to prison if necessary.

The new sentencing regime is contained in amendments tabled on Wednesday night to the legal aid, sentencing and punishment bill and is likely to increase the already record 87,000 prison population in England and Wales.

It places a serious question mark over Clarke's hopes of stabilising the jail population.

The justice secretary said he expected more dangerous offenders to get life sentences. "The new regime will restore clarity, coherence and common sense to sentencing, rid us of the inconsistent and confusing IPP regime and give victims a clearer understanding of how long offenders will actually serve in prison,

"We have already announced that we are bringing in an automatic prison sentence for any adults who use a knife to threaten and endanger. Clearly any extension of this sentence to children requires very careful consideration. However, we need to send out a clear message about the seriousness of juvenile knife crime, so we are proposing to extend a suitable equivalent sentence to 16-17 year olds, but not to younger children." he said.

    Knife crime teenagers to face mandatory jail sentences, NYT, 26.10.2011,
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/oct/26/kenneth-clarke-jail-sentences-knife-crime

Vincent Tabak weeps

as court shown photos

of Joanna Yeates's body

The man accused of Yeates's murder covers his face
as jurors see pictures of her body and injuries

Guardian.co.uk
Press Association
Friday 14 October 2011
15.19 BST
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 15.19 BST on Friday 14 October 2011. It was last modified at 15.51 BST on Friday 14 October 2011.
It was first published at 11.49 BST on Friday 14 October 2011.

Vincent Tabak wept in the dock as a jury was shown harrowing images of Joanna Yeates's strangled body.

The 33-year-old covered his face with his hands, removed his glasses and wiped his eyes as pictures of her snow-covered corpse and close-ups of her injuries were shown on big screens.

Further images taken by police after her body was found on Christmas Day show her "in a foetal-type position".

Close-up shots of her face from postmortem examinations showed her with blood-stained short blond hair.

Her eyes were closed and one of her earring studs was in place. Red bruise marks were shown on her neck and chin.

Mr Justice Field had warned the jury at Bristol crown court to prepare for the images, which were taken after the body was found by Daniel Birch.

Birch and his wife, Rebecca, had discovered a "lump" at the side of Longwood Lane, Failand, Somerset, while walking their dog, the court heard.

In a police statement read out to the jury, Birch said: "After walking for about 100 metres I saw a lump in the snow and what appeared to be a denim jeans pocket on the left-hand verge.

"I didn't think about it straight away and continued walking.

"After about 10 paces, my mind was saying 'that's a body' to me."

Yeates was lying adjacent to the road with her knees pointing towards a quarry wall. In his statement, Birch said he remembered the top of Yeates's white knickers and part of her bare back being exposed through the snow.

Yeates was found to have 43 injuries after being strangled by Tabak, her next-door neighbour, at her flat in Clifton on 17 December, the court has heard. Tabak admits manslaughter but denies murder.

As the pictures were shown to the jury, the pathologist Russell Delaney told the jury of a host of injuries found around her face and neck.

Images were taken before and after she was removed in a body bag to Flax Bourton mortuary in north Somerset.

Postmortem examination pictures showed her lying on her right side with her jeans still intact but her pink top pulled up over her head, exposing her navel and her grey bra.

Her right arm was bent around her head while her left was resting straight across her body. A picture of her right foot with the sock removed was also shown. She had been wearing a chunky white watch with a silver necklace and pendant.

Delaney performed the first examination at 6pm on the day her body was found. Yeates had purple bruising above her right eye and a graze on her cheek, the court heard.

Delaney said: "Bruising only occurs when the heart is beating – so the injuries occurred during life."

Injuries on her nose and lip were also suffered while she was still alive, he said.

Haemorrhages were noted by Delaney on her eyelids and face.

"The particular haemorrhages in the skin, face and eyelids are signs there has been venous obstruction in the head and neck," Delaney said.

Postmortem examinations continued on Boxing Day.

There were apparent blood stains on her flower-patterned pink top, Delaney said.

A Dutch interpreter was brought into the dock to make sure the defendant understood medical terms.

When Yeates's body was found, officers avoided putting a tent over her body amid fears that evidence could be compromised, the jury heard.

Andrew Mott, a forensic officer who reached the scene after police arrived shortly after 9am, told how he tried to prevent Yeates's body thawing out.

Tabak's QC, William Clegg, questioned why photographs were not taken of a broom being used to arrange straps underneath the body so her body could be taken away.

"I can't comment on why that was the case," Mott said.

"The straps that we used are hooked around the broom so it would have to be the straps that come into contact with the body."

The trial continues.

    Vincent Tabak weeps as court shown photos of Joanna Yeates's body, G, 14.10.2011, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/oct/14/joanna-yeates-body-dog-walker

Vincent Tabak was 'bored'

after killing Joanna Yeates, court hears

Prosecutor claims Dutch engineer strangled Yeates
then calmly texted his girlfriend before dumping her body

Guardian.co.uk
Monday 10 October 2011 14.40 BST
Steven Morris
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 14.40 BST
on Monday 10 October 2011. It was last modified at 15.03 BST
on Monday 10 October 2011.

A neighbour strangled the landscape architect Joanna Yeates before texting his girlfriend to tell her that he loved her and was "bored", a jury heard on Monday.

Following the killing Vincent Tabak, a Dutch engineer, hid his "terrible secret", attending parties and dinners, and pretended to be worried about Yeates, the jury was told.

The jury heard that Tabak and Yeates did not know each other. Nigel Lickley QC, prosecuting, told the court she had been killed within minutes of arriving back home at her flat in Bristol.

Tabak, the jury was told, had put his hand or hands around her neck and held her neck long enough to "squeeze the life out of her".

The killer then put Yeates's body in his car and drove to a supermarket, where he bought beer and crisps. The defendant later dumped Yeates' body on a snowy country lane and went to pick up his girlfriend, Tanja Morson, after a night out.

Bespectacled Tabak, 33, held his head in his hands as the prosecution told the jury that he had admitted the manslaughter of Yeates, 25, but denies murder.

Lickley said Tabak had "misled and manipulated" those around him as he hid his crime. But Lickley said: "He was in complete control and knew what he was doing."

Joanna Yeates was last seen as she walked back to the flat she shared with her boyfriend, Greg Reardon, on Friday 17 December last year. The police search for her began in the early hours of Monday 20 December after Reardon returned from a weekend away to find her missing.

Lickley told how Yeates' body was found by a couple on Christmas morning who had opened presents early and set off for a walk with their dog on Longwood Lane in Failand on the outskirts of Bristol.

"They walked past a mound of snow," Lickley said. "Something triggered in the mind of the man.

"From a distance he saw features that indicated that a human body was buried in the snow ... a patch of skin and some denim."

Lickley added: "The missing person inquiry that had commenced became a murder inquiry from that moment."

Yeates's parents, David and Teresa looked on from the public gallery in court one at Bristol crown court on the first day of evidence.

When CCTV footage of Yeates enjoying drinks with friends at a pub in Bristol before she walked home for the final time were shown, Mrs Yeates dabbed tears away and was comforted by her husband.

Lickley said that after arriving home Yeates had "settled down for the evening when she was interrupted by Vincent Tabak".

The prosecutor said screams were heard by people arriving for a party at a nearby house. "Those screams were Vincent Tabak attacking her," Lickley said.

The last person to see Yeates alive – other than Tabak – was a priest who spotted her as she walked back to her flat alone.

Lickley said: "The prosecution belief is that she was not home for very long, perhaps only a couple of minutes, before she was murdered."

After killing Yeates, the prosecution claims Tabak texted his girlfriend saying: "Missing you loads. It's boring here without you. V xx".

He then is believed to have bundled her body into his Renaut Megane and drove to a nearby Asda. He bought, beer and crisps and a bag of rock salt.

Again he texted his girlfriend: "How are you? I'm at Asda." He told her he was buying some crisps, though the predictive text turned the word into "crisis". He said he was "bored" and added: "I can't wait to pick you up."

After dumping Yeates' body and covering it with leaves he went to pick his girlfriend up in the early hours and CTTV footage caught him walking arm in arm with her.

The jury was told that although Tabak lived in a ground-floor flat adjoining Yeates's home, he did not know her.

Tabak had flown out to America shortly after she moved in to the flat and only returned shortly before the killing.

Lickley told how Yeates' boyfriend, Reardon, returned to their flat in Canynge Road, Clifton, on the evening of 19 December after a weekend away visiting family to find her missing.

"Eventually, realising that all was not well, he called the police," Lickley said.

"The police knocked on Vincent Tabak's door during their inquiries and spoke to him and his girlfriend in the early hours of 20 December," said Lickley.

Tabak pretended not to know what had happened to her and over the next days feigned concern.

Lickley told jurors that witnesses would give evidence describing the defendant's demeanour after Yeates disappeared and before he was arrested.

"Some talk of his normality, some the pressures and strains he was displaying. But behind closed doors, Tabak was following the hunt for Yeates closely.

Before Greg Reardon reported his girlfriend missing he had searched for a map of Longwood Lane on the internet.

When detectives announced they were looking for the pizza and its box that Yeates bought on the night she was last seen alive, Tabak began searching the internet to see when the rubbish had been collected in the Clifton area.

"He looked up information on the sentences for murder and manslaughter and constantly searched the Avon and Somerset police website for information about the case," said Lickley. "He looked up information on body decomposition, no doubt hoping nothing would remain of his victim."

The prosecutor added: "It is a striking feature of this case that, as one young man became more and more worried about his missing girlfriend, there, on the other side of the common wall, was her killer."

Lickley said that when police eventually told Tabak they could forensically link him to Yeates's body, he accused the forensic science service of "forgery and taking bribes".

"There is no doubt and neither is it in dispute as to how that young woman died," Lickley said. "Vincent Tabak strangled her with his hand or hands.

"He held her throat hard enough and for long enough to kill her. He was in complete control and knew what he was doing.

"At the same time, he knew Joanna Yeates was resisting and fighting for her life."

Referring back to the pizza that Yeates bought as she walked home, Lickley said: "The pizza and its box have not been found. Joanna Yeates did not eat it.

"Vincent Tabak took it, as he did one of her socks. Why he took these items only he can say."

The trial continues.

    Vincent Tabak was 'bored' after killing Joanna Yeates, court hears, 10.10.2011
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/oct/10/vincent-tabak-bored-joanna-yeates

Soldier jailed indefinitely for raping three teenagers

Jonathan Haynes may be guilty of many more crimes, say police

Thursday 8 September 2011
16.02 BST
This article was published on guardian.co.uk
at 16.02 BST on Thursday 8 September 2011.
Guardian.co.uk
Steven Morris and agencies

A soldier who raped three teenagers and tried to abduct two schoolgirls has been jailed indefinitely.

Jonathan Haynes, 30, raped two of the teenagers after seizing them on the streets of a market town and attacked the third at a university hall of residence.

Haynes, a lance corporal with the Royal Logistic Corps, tried to grab the two 14-year-old schoolgirls from a country lane.

Haynes was given an indeterminate sentence for public protection and ordered to serve at least 11 years imprisonment – but was warned he may never be released.

As he passed sentence, Judge Neil Ford QC, the recorder of Bristol, described Haynes as a "clever and cunning predator".

A jury was told that Haynes, who was based at a barracks near Chippenham in Wiltshire, meticulously planned his attacks. The first kidnap and rape happened in September 2009 in Chippenham as the 16-year-old victim made her way home from a night out.

Just 13 days later he raped an 18-year-old student after forcing entry to halls of residence in Pontypridd, south Wales.

The following February, he attempted to snatch the two schoolgirls late at night from a country lane near Chippenham.

Weeks later Haynes kidnapped a 17-year-old girl off the streets of Chippenham and repeatedly raped her.

Haynes did not realise that the hired car he was driving was fitted with a GPS tracking device. After his arrest, detectives were able to piece together his movements and establish that he had been cruising the streets of Chippenham during the early hours looking for victims, or "sharking".

One of his victims had the presence of mind to pull out some of her hair during her ordeal and push it down the car seat to prove she had been there.

Haynes, of Northampton, was found guilty of rape, kidnap and attempted kidnap.

Speaking after the hearing, Detective Chief Inspector Bob Hamlin, of Wiltshire police, said that there could be many more victims and that his team were examining other unsolved cases in the area.

He said: "We are investigating more cases that are unsolved but it is hard to put a figure on just how many more offences this dangerous man could have committed.

"He is one of the most evil men I've dealt with in 32 years of work. The horror the victims suffered can never be forgotten."

    Soldier jailed indefinitely for raping three teenagers, G, 8.9.2011,
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/sep/08/soldier-jailed-indefinitely-raping-teenagers

Youth charged over death of student killed in conker row

Steven Grisales was stabbed after asking youths to stop throwing conkers at him

Wednesday 7 September 2011
10.19 BST
Guardian.co.uk
Shiv Malik
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 10.19 BST on Wednesday 7 September 2011. It was last modified at 14.46 BST on Wednesday 7 September 2011.

A 15-year-old boy has appeared in court charged with the murder of a foreign student killed in a row over conkers.

Steven Grisales, 21, whose parents are understood to be Colombian, was killed after pleading with north London youths to stop throwing conkers at him as he walked to a railway station.

Grisales, a scholarship student who was due to study architecture, arrived in London in July and was returning home from visiting his grandmother, who lives nearby, when he was stabbed.

He was taken to the Royal London hospital where he died the next day.

The teenage male charged in connection with the murder was remanded in custody after appearing at Edmonton magistrates court. He is due to appear before the Old Bailey on Thursday.

Three other people have been arrested in connection with the killing, including a 19-year-old man and a 16-year-old girl. They have been bailed until next month.

Police believe that the attack on 31 August was not gang related.

"Officers now believe the incident began after conkers were thrown at the victim as he made his way towards Silver Street railway station," a Scotland Yard spokesman said.

Detective Inspector Richard Beadle, of Scotland Yard's murder command, called for witnesses to come forward.

"I desperately need those people that saw what happened to come and speak to us because Steven has lost his life totally unnecessarily."

"It is really, really upsetting for everybody that something so trivial can result in a young man losing his life. "

    Youth charged over death of student killed in conker row, G, 7.9.2011,
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/sep/07/student-killed-after-conker-row

Parents charged over suspected 'honour' killing

Mother and father of Shafilea Ahmed,
whose body was found in 2004, to appear in court on murder charges

Wednesday 7 September 2011
12.25 BST
Guardian.co.uk
Helen Carter
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 12.25 BST
on Wednesday 7 September 2011.

The parents of Shafilea Ahmed, a suspected victim of a so-called honour killing eight years ago, have been charged with murder and are due to appear in court.

Cheshire police said a man and a woman had been charged with murder in connection with the death of Shafilea, 17, who was last seen in her home town of Warrington, Cheshire, in 2003. Her remains were found in February 2004 on the banks of the River Kent in Cumbria.

Police said Iftikhar Ahmed, 51, a taxi driver, and Farzana Ahmed, 48, of Liverpool Road, Warrington, were arrested on suspicion of murder in September 2010. Cheshire police have now charged both with murder following authorisation by the Crown Prosecution Service.

They are due to appear at Halton magistrates court in Runcorn on Wednesday.

The coroner at an inquest in Cumbria concluded that Shafilea had been unlawfully killed. Her parents have denied any wrongdoing in relation to her death.

    Parents charged over suspected 'honour' killing, G, 7.9.2011,
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/sep/07/parents-charged-suspected-honour-killing

Rebecca Aylward's mother

calls for death penalty for her killer

Murdered schoolgirl's ex-boyfriend Joshua Davies, 16,
to serve at least 14 years after luring her into woods and killing her

Friday 2 September 2011
14.05 BST
Guardian.co.uk
Steven Morris
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 14.05 BST on Friday 2 September 2011. A version appeared on p16 of the Main section section of the Guardian on Saturday 3 September 2011. It was last modified at 15.15 BST on Friday 2 September 2011. It was first published at 12.46 BST on Friday 2 September 2011.

The mother of schoolgirl Rebecca Aylward, who was murdered by her former boyfriend, said the killer ought to face the death penalty.

Joshua Davies, 16, was jailed for life for battering 15-year-old Rebecca to death with a rock and was told he would spend at least 14 years behind bars before being eligible for parole.

But outside court, Aylward's mother, Sonia Oatley, said the sentence had not brought any relief to the family.

She said: "The evil-doer Joshua Davies robbed us of watching our precious and perfect little girl flourish into a successful young woman.

"We will never forgive him for tearing our world apart so brutally and I would welcome the return of capital punishment for the likes of Joshua Davies, who forfeited his human rights when he chose to take my daughter's life."

Oatley said Rebecca had been aiming to become a barrister and had even started planning her own wedding.

"Joshua Davies snuffed all that out," she said. "There is no doubt in my mind that Rebecca was destined for great things." She said it was all the harder to bear because Rebecca had "trusted and loved" her killer.

Davies was found guilty of luring Rebecca into woods near their homes in south Wales. He tried to frame a friend over the killing and his barrister, Peter Rouch QC, told Swansea crown court that he still insisted that he was not involved.

Rouch said: "Although all murders are senseless, you can usually derive a reason or motive for the killing.

"In this case it is difficult to reason why it was that Rebecca came to be killed. All that we can say is that what happened in the forest that day had a terrible and ruinous effect."

The court was told that psychiatrists who had spoken to Davies found no condition that might explain his brutal attack. It heard that Davies had been a well-liked boy with no history of violence.

But the judge Mr Justice Lloyd Jones told Davies that he had a "deep-seated hatred towards Rebecca which eventually led you to kill her".

He said the teenagers had separated a year earlier with "bitterness" on both sides. He called Davies "devious, calculating and controlling".

Addressing Rebecca's family, the judge accepted that no sentence could make up for a lost life.

Rebecca's killing was a huge shock in Maesteg, her home town, and the village of Aberkenfig, where the killing took place and where Davies lived.

The jury heard that Davies and Rebecca had known each other for some years and dated for three months.

After they parted, Davies began to talk about killing Rebecca, telling friends he would find a way of murdering her and getting away with it. He spoke of making a poison out of plants such as deadly nightshade.

Davies once asked his friends what they would give him if he carried out the killing. They say they did not take him seriously and promised to buy him breakfast if he did it.

On 23 October last year Davies and Rebecca arranged to meet in woods at Aberkenfig, a popular hangout for teenagers.

Rebecca wore an outfit she had bought the day before, possibly believing they were going to get back together. Before he left for the woods Davies smiled at one of his friends and told him: "The time has come."

After the attack, when a friend phoned him in the woods to ask him if he was with Rebecca, Davies coolly asked him to define what he meant by "with".

He later boasted to friends that he had attacked Rebecca, who was slightly built, from behind.

She was screaming and the worst thing, he said, was seeing her skull give way. The rock he used to batter her was so heavy that in court during the trial an official struggled to pick it up with one hand.

Following the murder, Davies summoned a friend to the woods. The boy described in court how he "glimpsed" Rebecca's body lying face down, her arms splayed out. Davies was a "bit shaky" but "didn't seem upset at what he'd done".

The alarm was raised and a search was launched after Rebecca failed to return home.

Meanwhile, Davies updated his Facebook page to say he was "chilling" with friends. He had a cup of tea and watched Strictly Come Dancing and the film No Country for Old Men.

During the search for Rebecca he sent a text asking her to get in touch: "We're all worried," he wrote.

Rebecca's body was found in the woods the next day.

    Rebecca Aylward's mother calls for death penalty for her killer, G, 2.9.2011,
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/sep/02/rebecca-aylward-killer-life-sentence

Revealed:

the full picture of sentences handed down to rioters

Exclusive: Guardian data confirms courts opt for tougher punishments,
and shows the demographic of those charged

Data: the full list of cases and convictions so far

Thursday 18 August 2011
21.23 BST
Guardian.co.uk
Alan Travis and Simon Rogers
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 21.23 BST on Thursday 18 August 2011. A version appeared on p1 of the Main section section of the Guardian on Friday 19 August 2011. It was last modified at 01.11 BST on Friday 19 August 2011.

The courts are handing down prison sentences to convicted rioters that are on average 25% longer than normal, according to an exclusive Guardian analysis of 1,000 riot-related cases dealt with so far by magistrates.

The data proves for the first time that the handful of high-profile individual cases – including a four-year sentence for inciting disorder on Facebook – are indicative of a more punitive general trend.

This unprecedented access to national court results reveals that 70% of defendants have been remanded in custody to await crown court trial, fuelling a surge in the prison population, which reached a record high of 86,608 in England and Wales. The Guardian's data also shows that 56 defendants of the 80 who have already been sentenced by magistrates were given immediate prison terms. This 70% rate of imprisonment compares with a "normal" rate of just 2% in magistrates courts.

More than half those imprisoned were charged with theft or handling stolen goods, receiving an average of 5.1 months. This is 25% longer than the average custodial sentence for these crimes of 4.1 months seen in courts during 2010, according to Ministry of Justice statistics. Public order offences are leading to sentences 33% longer than normal and those convicted of assaulting police officers have been jailed for 40% longer than usual.

The results reflect the limited sentencing powers of the magistrates courts, which cannot pass a sentence of more than six months for an individual offence. The Guardian analysis shows that the average prison sentence handed out by the magistrates to rioters so far is five months. This is double the usual prison sentence in the magistrates courts of 2.5 months, but that average includes many other more minor offences, including motoring offences.

Prison governors said that the huge 677-strong rise in jail numbers over the last week sparked by this more punitive approach had pitched the prison system into "an unprecedented situation". Emergency measures had been agreed with Prison Service chiefs in case the rapid rise in inmate numbers continued unabated over the next fortnight.

The Prison Governors Association said medium- to long-term measures included opening enough new and refurbished jail accommodation to avoid the normal emergency measure of using police cells.

The governors said they were confident the situation could be managed safely.

The record prison numbers are putting jails and young offender institutions under increasing pressure: there are only 1,485 spare places in the system before prison governors have to put out the "jail full" signs.

Prison Service chiefs are expected to outline the contingency measures , including increased overcrowding by doubling and even trebling inmates in cells designed for single occupation.

Prison governors had already warned that the riots had put further strains on a stretched prison system, with inmates moved out of London and Manchester to create space for rioters jailed or remanded in custody awaiting trial.

The Ministry of Justice said that its latest figures, up to noon on Wednesday, showed 1,297 people had appeared before magistrates charged with riot-related offences. A total of 772 had been remanded in custody, compared with the "normal" remand rate for serious offences of 10%.

"This is causing massive problems for prisons," said Harry Fletcher, of Napo, the probation officers' union. "There are so many of them coming through the system, it is causing considerable problems. When people are being held so far from home it causes real difficulties for their families." He said Nottingham jail alone had been sent a group of 30 prisoners from London this week.

The total prison population on Friday last week stood at 85,931, which included 607 immigration detainees. As space runs out so the potential for work, education or rehabilitation will be "zero", claims Fletcher.

The justice secretary, Kenneth Clarke, will be hoping that the developing pressures on the prison system are purely temporary, otherwise they have the capacity to derail his plans to stabilise the jail population and bring in his "rehabilitation revolution". The normal pressure valve for the prison system when it comes close to capacity is Operation Safeguard, which involves emergency use of police cells to house prisoners. But that option is now closed off as forces stay prepared for any further disturbances.

In the medium term the Prison Service may be able to add portable accommodation within existing jails, and no doubt in the longer term the prospect of a new prison ship could be raised. The service has already announced plans to close two small jails, Latchmere House in London and Brockhill prison, at Redditch, Worcestershire, next month. One option could be to postpone these closures.

A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said that there were enough places for those being sent to prison, including in young offender institutions, following the riots: "There is substantial capacity in the prison system. We will provide prison places for those committed to custody by the courts. We are developing contingencies should exceptional pressure be placed on the prison estate."

    Revealed: the full picture of sentences handed down to rioters, G, 18.8.2011,
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/18/full-picture-of-riot-sentences

Riots: magistrates advised to 'disregard normal sentencing'

Cases which usually would be dealt with by magistrates courts
could now be referred to crown court for tougher sentences

Monday 15 August 2011
19.53 BST
Guardian.co.uk
Owen Bowcott and Stephen Bates
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 19.53 BST on Monday 15 August 2011. A version appeared on p7 of the Main section section of the Guardian on Tuesday 16 August 2011. It was last modified at 00.58 BST
on Tuesday 16 August 2011.

Magistrates are being advised by the courts service to disregard normal sentencing guidelines when dealing with those convicted of offences committed in the context of last week's riots.

The advice, given in open court by justices' clerks, will result in cases that would usually be disposed of in magistrates courts being referred to the crown court for more severe punishment.

It may explain why some of those convicted have received punitive sentences for offences that might normally attract a far shorter term.

In Manchester a mother of two, Ursula Nevin, was jailed for five months for receiving a pair of shorts given to her after they had been looted from a city centre store. In Brixton, south London, a 23-year-old student was jailed for six months for stealing £3.50 worth of water bottles from a supermarket.

The Crown Prosecution Service also issued guidance to prosecutors on Monday, effectively calling for juveniles found guilty of riot-related crimes to be named and shamed. Those dealt with in youth courts are normally not identified. The youngest suspects bought before the courts last week in connection with the riots were an 11-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy.

The sentencing advice from Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service came to light after the chair of Camberwell Green magistrates court, Novello Noades, claimed that the court had been given a government "directive" that anyone involved in the rioting be given a custodial sentence. She later retracted her statement and said she was mortified to have used the term "directive".

Clarifying what had occurred, HMCTS explained that a senior clerk had circulated instructions to court clerks that they should advise magistrates to consider disregarding normal sentencing guidelines.

"Sentencing is a matter for the independent judiciary," it said. "Under the Criminal Procedure Rules justices' clerks and legal advisers in magistrates courts have a responsibility to give advice to magistrates on sentencing guidelines.

"All advice is given in open court and the parties are entitled to comment. Accordingly magistrates in London are being advised by their legal advisers to consider whether their powers of punishment are sufficient in dealing with some cases arising from the recent disorder.

"Magistrates are independent and not subject to direction from their legal advisers."

The advice was issued last week in the aftermath of the riots. It was given, it is said, to ensure consistency of sentencing across the country. Courts can therefore consider the riots as an aggravating factor in any offence, making stealing from looted shops more serious than conventional shoplifting.

Last week David Cameron told the recalled House of Commons that anyone involved in violent disorder should expect to go to prison. The Ministry of Justice denied that it had asked the HMCTS to issue the advice.

The Judicial Communications Office, which issues statements on behalf of judges, also dismissed suggestions it had been involved. "The senior judiciary has given no directive in relation to sentencing for offences committed during the recent widespread public disorder," it said.

"When passing sentences judges consider many factors, including the punishment of offenders, the reduction of crime by deterrence, and the need to protect the public."

Magistrates can only sentence offenders to up to six months in prison for a single offence. The chairman of the Magistrates' Association, John Thornhill, has been pressing the government to raise the maximum sentencing power of magistrates to 12 months.

"Many of these cases would have been dealt with more expeditiously and cheaper if we had the 12-month sentencing powers," Thornhill said. "They would not have needed to be sent to the crown courts."

In its advice on identifying youths, the CPS said: "We have issued guidance to prosecutors that states they should ask the court to lift the anonymity of a youth defendant when they believe it is required in the public interest that the youth be identified. Legislation permits the court to do so after conviction. These representations will be made on a case-by-case basis."

Among the criteria the court should consider when identifying any juvenile is whether the move is "necessary, proportionate and there must be a pressing social need for it".

Among those appearing before City of Westminster magistrates court on Monday was Wilson Unses Garcia, 42, of Walworth, south London. He was jailed for six months for receiving stolen property: two tennis racquets worth £340 looted from a sports shop in south London. When police searched his property they found the racquets still in wrapping and with price labels on them.

Garcia said he had had the racquets for some time. Police said he later told them: "I knew it was not right the minute they put them into my hand."

His solicitor told the court that Garcia, who pleaded guilty, had not participated in looting, did not agree with the rioting and had accepted the racquets from a man he knew only from his first name as payment of a £20 debt.A pregnant woman accused of hoarding £10,000 of electronic equipment looted during the London riots has been remanded in custody ahead of her trial.

Alicia Wilkinson, 22, was discovered with a vast amount of stolen guitars, televisions and hair braiding equipment when police raided her home in Outram Road, Croydon, at the weekend.

The Gatwick airport worker, who is due to give birth in four months, was denied bail after pleading not guilty to handling stolen goods at Croydon magistrates court.

Robert Simpson, prosecuting, told the court the flat was "noticeably packed" with the equipment, much of which had been looted from Croydon electronics store Richer Sounds at the peak of the chaos on 8 August.

Wilkinson claims she returned from housesitting for her mother to find the flat she shares with boyfriend Nick Cuffy and his brother Neil was full of the haul, the court heard.

Her defence solicitor told district judge Robert Hunter she was a "highly unlikely defendant", adding it had "played on her mind ever since then about the right course of action to take".

    Riots: magistrates advised to 'disregard normal sentencing', G, 15.8.2011,
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/15/riots-magistrates-sentencing

Levi Bellfield gets life without parole

Milly Dowler killer who hated women with blond hair
may be to blame for 20 unsolved attacks say police

Friday 24 June 2011
19.35 BST
Guardian.co.uk
Caroline Davies
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 19.35 BST on Friday 24 June 2011.
A version appeared on p6 of the Main section section of the Guardian on Saturday 25 June 2011. It was last modified at 00.10 BST on Saturday 25 June 2011.

Levi Bellfield refused to leave his prison cell to hear Mr Justice Wilkie sentence him to life without parole and condemn him as a "cruel and pitiless killer".

His refusal marked him out as a man who lacked the "courage to come into court to face his victims and receive his sentence", said Wilkie, who told the Old Bailey that the former club doorman would never leave prison.

He had robbed Milly Dowler, 13, "of her promising life" and taken her from her family and friends. "He treated her in death with total disrespect, depositing her naked body without even a semblance of a burial, in a wood, far away from her home, vulnerable to all the forces of nature thereby, as he clearly intended, causing her family the appalling anguish for many months of not knowing what had become of her."

Milly had become his victim "for no reason other than she was in the wrong place at the wrong time … a target of the unreasoning hatred which seem to have driven him", said the judge.

The "unreasoning hatred" evident from Bellfield's previous convictions appeared to be directed at women, and young blonde women in particular. His explosive and random attacks on lone women at night earned him the nickname the "bus stop stalker" and made him one of the UK's most dangerous serial killers.

It also earned him a whole life sentence in 2008, when he was convicted of the murders of Amelie Delagrange, 22, Marsha McDonnell, 19, and the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy, 18. It is thought Bellfield is the first person to have received two whole life sentences.

But, what the jury were never told was that he also harboured an unhealthy obsession with young schoolgirls and school uniforms. While under police surveillance, before his arrest for the Delagrange murder in 2004, he approached and made "highly sexually provocative" comments to two girls, cousins aged 14 and 16, at a bus stop. This was judged too prejudicial for the jury to hear.

Three former girlfriends – he has fathered 11 children with five women, some of them pregnant at the same time – told police he would ask them to dress up in school uniform, which they declined. He would think nothing of driving around in his van, leering at girls in school uniforms and shouting abuse after them, said one former partner.

"It's an attraction which obviously has particular resonance when you consider the offences relating to Amanda [Milly] Dowler," prosecutor Brian Altman said at a pre-trial hearing.

Detectives believe he may have been responsible for around 20 attacks on women which were never solved, including rape.

Bellfield particularly hated blondes. Acquaintances spoke of his loathing of women who dyed their hair blond, calling them "impure" and "sluts" who "deserved to be messed around with".

One girlfriend found a magazine in which all the faces of the blond women were scratched out with a knife. Bellfield told her he used to go into alleyways, wait for blond women to walk past, and feel the urge to "hurt then, stab them".

Despite lacking obvious physical charm, he thought himself a "ladies' man", with the gift of the gab. His job as a club doorman offered him plenty of opportunities to pick up girls, and ply them with drink and drugs before sexually abusing them. Inside his van there was a mattress, blankets and baseball bat, according to one former employee, who called Bellfield "an animal" and a "caveman".

Bellfield is said to have offered his friend the opportunity to buy sex with his then girlfriend, just 16, as well as her 14-year-old sister. The offer was refused.

Born in Isleworth, west London, one of three boys and a girl. His father, a motor mechanic, died when he was eight. He was very close to his mother, described as a "strong-willed matriach", and visited her regularly, including in the hours after he killed Milly.

Perhaps his violent obsession with blondes had its roots in an incident at the age of 12, when his blonde girlfriend Patsy Morris, 14, was found strangled on Hounslow Heath. Nothing suggests he was responsible.

There were convictions for burglary stretching back to when he was 13, and for possessing an offensive weapon in public. He had wild mood swings, took drugs, and admitted he was clinically depressed..

He was keen to brag to schoolfriends on the Friends Reunited website where he described himself as a "bit flash", and asked for "any single girls out there to email me".

    Levi Bellfield gets life without parole, G, 24.6.2011,
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jun/24/levi-bellfield-life-without-parole

Jailed teacher's abuse of primary pupils

prompts serious case review

Probe ordered into how crimes went undiscovered
after teacher Nigel Leat jailed indefinitely for years of sexual abuse

Tuesday 14 June 2011
14.01 BST
Guardian.co.uk
Steven Morris
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 14.01 BST on Tuesday 14 June 2011. It was last modified at 14.01 BST on Tuesday 14 June 2011. It was first published at 11.42 BST on Tuesday 14 June 2011.

A review has been launched to establish if authorities could have acted sooner to prevent a primary school teacher sexually assaulting pupils as young as six, allegedly for more than a decade.

Nigel Leat was jailed indefinitely for abusing children he taught, often when other pupils were present, and secretly filming his attacks.

He groomed at least one girl a year at Hillside first school in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset and showered her with gifts, afforded her privileges and organised one-on-one teaching sessions.

Leat, 51, would swear his victims to secrecy and even write letters to them in which he would describe what he wanted to do to them and ask them to reply.

After the sentencing, North Somerset council revealed that the headteacher of Hillside, Chris Hood, had been suspended and an independent serious case review was being held.

A spokesman said: "This will examine the circumstances around what has happened and will help us answer the question on most parents' lips: 'Could action have been taken earlier that would have prevented abuse?' "

The spokesman said the headteacher was suspended after "concerns were raised about leadership and management" at the school.

"There is no police involvement in this process and no ongoing investigation of any other members of staff at the school."

Married father of two Leat, from Bristol, admitted 36 offences involving five pupils aged between six and eight over five years. The offences included sexual assault, attempted rape, voyeurism and possessing extreme pornography.

But police say they could have charged him with as many as 500 offences and believe he had been abusing children for 12 years.

About 30 parents and teachers watched at Bristol crown court as Judge Neil Ford QC, the recorder of Bristol, sentenced Leat to an indefinite term and ruled he must serve at least eight and a half years.

Leat would only be released when experts were sure he did not pose a risk to the public, he said.

The judge told Leat: "Your manipulation of the children was clever, cunning and insidious. It was also wicked.

"You were able to carry out repeated abuse. No members of staff or parents suspected that you were conducting this abuse."

Leat told a psychiatrist that he could not stop. "You said that you could think of nothing else other than taking a camera to school and making films. You described it as being an obsession," the judge said.

He said the victims were old enough to remember what had happened to them: "At some stage they will have to deal with the shame and depravation that you have brought upon them."

Outside court, the senior investigating officer, Detective Superintendent Geoff Wessell, said it was the "worst breach of trust" he had ever come across in his career.

He said he would support anyone else who came forward and said they had been abused by Leat.

The abuse went undetected at the school – where Leat taught for 15 years – until December last year when one victim told her mother that Leat had been touching her.

He was arrested within hours and officers found hundreds of films of his abuse stored on memory sticks in his classroom.

Leat, a former musician, keen birdwatcher and cyclist, qualified as a teacher in 1984 and only taught at Hillside.

He was warned in 2008 about being too "tactile" with the girls in his class as staff were worried that it might leave him open to accusations of improper behaviour. No further action was taken.

A parent once expressed concern about his behaviour after he asked a girl if she had a webcam so they could stay in touch after she left his classroom.

The concerns were not passed on to the authorities. Police were not alerted to worries over Leat until last December. The review is expected to be completed by the autumn.

    Jailed teacher's abuse of primary pupils prompts serious case review, G, 14.6.2011,
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jun/14/teacher-jailed-indefinitely-sexual-abuse

London teenagers found guilty over Victoria station killing

Jury finds two youths guilty of murder
and three of manslaughter over killing of Sofyen Belamouadden, 15, at tube station

Monday 16 May 2011
12.56 BST
Guardian.co.uk
Sandra Laville
Crime correspondent
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 12.56 BST on Monday 16 May 2011.
It was last modified at 14.11 BST on Monday 16 May 2011.

Five teenagers have been found guilty of chasing down and killing a schoolboy at Victoria underground station in an attack organised on Facebook.

A jury on Monday found two of the teenagers guilty of murdering 15-year-old Sofyen Belamouadden; three other teenagers were found guilty of manslaughter.

The killing took place in front of hundreds of rush-hour commuters, and was caught on CCTV cameras in the station in London. Footage, which was produced during the teenagers' trial at the Old Bailey, showed the group of youths surrounding Sofyen as he lay on the floor of the ticket hall on 25 March last year.

In 15 seconds the teenagers, who were allegedly part of a larger group of 20 youths, punched, stabbed and kicked him to death before fleeing the station and then boarding a bus.

The killing was the result of "simmering tensions" between pupils at a sixth form college in west London and teenagers from other schools.

Sofyen, of west London, was stabbed nine times to the body, with wounds to his heart, a lung and major blood vessels, in what Mark Heywood QC prosecuting told the jury was a "combined, comprehensive and lethal attack".

One member of the gang, Samuel Roberts, 18, told the court he joined in the violence simply because "everyone else was doing it".

Obi Nwokeh, 18, and a 17-year-old youth, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were convicted of murder by unanimous jury verdicts.

Roberts, of Camberwell, Adonis Akra, 18, of Stockwell, and another 17-year-old, who also cannot be named for legal reasons, were cleared of the charge but convicted of manslaughter.Enoch Amoah, 18, of Camberwell, was cleared of both charges but convicted of violent disorder.

All six defendants were found guilty of conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm. A number of other youths are due to face separate trials over the killing.

    London teenagers found guilty over Victoria station killing, G, 16.5.2011,
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/may/16/london-teenagers-jail-victoria-station-murder

Mother jailed for 16 years

for stabbing three children to death

American Theresa Riggi admitted killing
eight-year-old twin boys and five-year-old girl in Edinburgh
before attempting suicide

Wednesday 27 April 2011 14.33 BST
Guardian.co.uk
Severin Carrell
Scotland correspondent
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 14.33 BST
on Wednesday 27 April 2011. A version appeared in the Guardian
on Thursday 28 April 2011. It was last modified at 14.41 BST
on Wednesday 27 April 2011.

A mother who admitted stabbing her three children to death at their home in Edinburgh after a bitter custody dispute has been jailed for 16 years.

Theresa Riggi, 47, originally from California, pleaded guilty in March to killing her children – eight-year-old twins Austin and Gianluca, and their sister Cecilia, five – at their home in west Edinburgh.

She stabbed each of them eight times and then allegedly tried to cover up their deaths with a gas explosion, before trying to kill herself by leaping out of their second-floor flat. Riggi was facing court action for custody by her estranged husband, Pasquale Riggi, an oil industry engineer in Aberdeen.

Passing sentence at the high court in Glasgow, Lord Bracadale told Riggi she had subjected her children to "a truly disturbing degree of violence" and was guilty of a "ghastly and grotesque" act.

The judge said Riggi had "a genuine but abnormal and possessive love" for her children.

The court heard in March that Riggi suffered from narcissistic, paranoid and hysterical personality disorders, had refused to allow her husband to share a bed with her and the children, and had been increasingly possessive. The couple separated soon after Cecilia was born.

Psychiatrists did not, however, believe she was mentally ill, the judge said. "The result of these acts is a devastating family tragedy. The father of the children, Pasquale Riggi, and the wider family, have been left utterly bereft by the loss of the children."

The prosecution accepted Riggi's plea of culpable homicide, the Scottish version of manslaughter, on the basis of diminished responsibility in March. Charges accusing her of recklessly causing an explosion by tampering with her home's gas cooker were set aside.

Bracadale said this plea and her mental state did not absolve her of blame. "The effect of the diminished responsibility is to reduce these crimes from what would have been exceptionally wicked crimes of murder to what are still very serious crimes of culpable homicide," he said.

"The number and nature of the stab wounds to each child is indicative of a truly disturbing degree of violence, which, in order to bring about the deaths of three children, must have been sustained over a significant period of time.

"It is difficult to envisage the physical commission of such acts. Dr Crichton [a psychiatrist] considers that the degree of violence and the sustained nature of it are inexplicable in terms of your disorder of the mind.

"It is clear that any degree of responsibility for such ghastly and grotesque acts must be visited with a lengthy sentence of imprisonment."

Outside the court, in a statement read out on his behalf by David Sinclair, of Victim Support Scotland, Pasquale Riggi said his children's deaths would leave an "indelible mark on the rest of his life".

He added: "They were such wonderful, energetic, bright and happy children. Those of us who had the pleasure of knowing Cecilia, Luke and Austin looked forward to watching them grow.

"There is no justification for this heinous crime, repeated three times, nor is there any sentence that can provide justice for the overwhelming loss of three lives and the subsequent painful grief and devastation caused to surviving family and friends."

Bracadale said that Riggi would have been sentenced to 18 years in prison, but he added a discount of two years following her guilty plea. He told Riggi she would be deported as soon as her sentence was completed, and placed on the child protection register.

The children's bodies were discovered side by side minutes after a gas explosion at their home in Slateford, west Edinburgh. Passersby saw Riggi clamber over the second-floor balcony of the building and throw herself off. Her fall was broken by a neighbour, who managed to push her falling body on to a parked car. Riggi had several self-inflicted wounds.

Donald Findlay QC, her defence counsel, told the court in March that Riggi was "in the midst of an acute stress reaction" at the time of the murders.

"Theresa Riggi is not evil, she is not wicked, she is not a monster. If it is possible to love one's children too much, she loved them too much. [She] believed the children and she were safer together in death than they ever could be in life," he said.

The court heard in March that Riggi had been due to attend a hearing on the children's future the day before they were killed. The court of session, Scotland's civil court, had already seized Riggi's passport and appointed a child psychologist.

Alex Prentice QC, for the prosecution, said that several days before the deaths, she had told a friend that things were so bad he would "hear about it on the national news". Two days before the explosion, Riggi had accused her husband during a telephone conversation of being in collusion with their solicitors and asked if he would take the children away. After he told her she "left him no choice", Riggi retorted, "say goodbye, then", and hung up the phone.

    Mother jailed for 16 years for stabbing three children to death, G, 27.4.2011,
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/apr/27/mother-jailed-16-years-children

'Night stalker' jailed for life

Judge tells Delroy Grant his crimes are 'in a league of their own'
and says he should face possibility he may die in prison

James Meikle and agencies
Guardian.co.uk
Friday 25 March 2011
13.23 GMT
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 13.23 GMT on Friday 25 March 2011.
It was last modified at 14.03 GMT on Friday 25 March 2011.

The serial sex attacker Delroy Grant has been sentenced to life in prison for the 17 years of terror in which he attacked at least 203 elderly people in their homes.

The "night stalker" will serve at least 27 years and was warned by the judge that he could die in prison.

Grant, 53, who was convicted at Woolwich crown court, London, on Thursday of 29 charges relating to burglaries, attempted burglaries, rapes and indecent assaults against 18 elderly people between October 1992 and November 2009, was told by Judge Peter Rook: "Your offending is in a league of its own."

The Metropolitan police force has apologised for blunders which led to 146 attacks being committed after he should have been arrested.

The judge told Grant, a former minicab driver, he was a "very dangerous man capable of committing heinous crimes and causing incalculable harm".

"You targeted elderly victims living alone. Your actions blighted the remaining precious years of their lives. Their homes, where many of them had lived for years, should have been their safest refuge where they could have expected to live their lives undisturbed and at peace.

"You chose to invade their homes when they were in their beds at night. It's hard to imagine the extreme fear that the feel of your gloved hand and the sight of your masked figure looming above them must have been felt by your victims in their beds."

The court also heard statements on Friday from Grant's victims and their families about the impact of his crimes. One 85-year-old woman, referred to as Miss J for legal reasons, said she still continued to suffer from her ordeal nearly nine years ago. She was 77 when Grant burgled and indecently assaulted her at her bungalow in Shirley, Croydon, in October 2002.

In a statement from 2003, she said: "I have found that time is not a great healer. I don't think it's got any easier over the last year. I certainly haven't got back my peace of mind. Nobody can guarantee it won't happen again." Asked by the judge if her experiences at Grant's hands still affected her, Miss J replied: "If I go out I like to be home before dark. I do a lot of locking and bolting, and taking precautions … It changed my life."

The judge paid tribute to Miss J's "courageous" testimony and quoted from the son of another of Grant's victims, who said: "It has ruined the winter years of my mother's life, and she has to live with this for the rest of her life."

Grant received four life sentences for three rapes and one attempted rape of elderly women. He was also given concurrent eight-year sentences for seven indecent assaults, and concurrent six-year sentences for 18 burglaries and attempted burglaries.

Courtenay Griffiths QC, defending, offered no mitigation for Grant other than to point out that his age meant he would probably spend the rest of his life in jail.

The judge noted that in all but one case Grant targeted elderly people living alone, suggesting that his attacks involved considerable planning.

He said: "Your offending spans a period of 17 years. Five London boroughs were affected by your offending. During that period your activities must have terrified a whole community, as your counsel accepted.

"Thousands of people in south London have been living in fear that they might be your next victim."

    'Night stalker' jailed for life, G, 25.3.2011, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/mar/25/night-stalker-jailed-life

River murder father jailed for life

Christopher Grady drove car into freezing river Avon, killing five-year-old daughter Gabrielle

Press Association
Guardian.co.uk
Tuesday 22 March 2011
13.56 GMT
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 13.56 GMT on Tuesday 22 March 2011.

A father who murdered his five-year-old daughter and attempted to kill his six-year-old son by driving them into a freezing river has been jailed for life.

Christopher Grady, 43, plunged his car into the river Avon at Evesham, Worcestershire, on 11 February last year.

Gabrielle Grady spent two hours trapped in the submerged vehicle and was pronounced dead three days later. Grady and his son Ryan survived after police and firefighters pulled them from the water.

Grady was convicted last Friday after a three-week trial at Birmingham crown court.

Today Mr Justice Lindblom handed Grady a life sentence for the murder of Gabrielle and told him he would serve a minimum term of 15 years. He was sentenced to 10 years for the attempted murder of Ryan, to run concurrently.

The judge said: "What you did on 11 February 2010 would horrify anyone who is, or has been, the parent of a young child. It would horrify any right-thinking person. You took the life of your daughter, Gabby, who was five years old. You tried to take the life of your son, Ryan, who was six. Those crimes were born of anger and self-pity."

The judge added that Grady had put his "defenceless" children, who were screaming and crying, "in terror" and had betrayed their trust in him. He said: "In all of this, Ryan and Gabby were innocent. They were your children. They loved you. They looked to you for protection and support."

During the trial, jurors heard that Grady had warned the children's mother, Kim Smith, she had 10 seconds to say goodbye to them before he drove into the water at Hampton Ferry.

Smith, 37, said he arrived at her house in Evesham at around 9.15am, telling her to say goodbye, before driving away shouting the word "river". She said his face was "contorted" and "vile" with anger.

The jury of seven women and five men took five hours to find Grady guilty of both counts. He had denied the charges, telling the court the incident had been "an accident".

After Grady was led away from the court, the judge offered his condolences to Smith. He said: "I turn to the family, and in particular Miss Smith and Ryan (who was not in court). I offer them my own sympathy in their loss, and I hope that the pain of that loss may now be easier to bear."

    River murder father jailed for life, G, 22.3.2011, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/mar/22/river-murder-father-christopher-grady

Julian Assange to be extradited to Sweden

WikiLeaks founder handed verdict at Belmarsh magistrates court


Share Esther Addley and Alexandra Topping
Guardian.co.uk
Thursday 24 February 2011
11.23 GMT
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 11.23 GMT on Thursday 24 February 2011.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is to be extradited to Sweden to face allegations of rape and sexual assault.

Assange has been fighting extradition since he was arrested and bailed in December. He has consistently denied the allegations, made by two women in August last year.

Howard Riddle, the chief magistrate, delivered his ruling at a hearing at Belmarsh magistrates court in London. It is unlikely to be the end of the matter, however, because an appeal is expected, which would delay the final decision until the summer at the latest.

At a two-day hearing earlier this month, his legal team argued that Assange would not receive a fair trial in Sweden. They said the European arrest warrant (EAW) issued by Sweden was invalid because the Australian had not been charged with any offence and that the alleged assaults would not be legitimate extraditable offences.

Assange fears that an extradition to Sweden would make it easier for Washington to extradite him to the US on possible charges relating to the release by WikiLeaks of leaked US embassy cables.

If this was to happen, Sweden would have to ask permission from the UK for the onward extradition. No such charges have been laid, though the website's activities are under investigation in the US.

The Swedish prosecutor, represented in court by the British Crown Prosecution Service, argued that despite the lack of charge, Assange was being sought for prosecution rather than merely for questioning, which meant the warrant was valid.

The most serious of the four allegations relates to an accusation that Assange, during a visit to Stockholm in August, had sex with a woman, Miss B, while she was sleeping and without a condom, and without her consent. Three counts of sexual assault are also alleged against another woman, Miss A. If found guilty of the rape charge he could face up to four years in prison.

Assange will now be detained in custody, because there is no system of bail in Sweden, until a possible trial or release.

The Australian ambassador to Sweden, Paul Stephens, wrote to the country's justice minister last week to insist that, if extradited, any possible case against Assange "would proceed in accordance with due process and the provisions prescribed under Swedish law, as well as applicable European and international laws, including relevant human rights norms".

EAWs were introduced in 2003 with the aim of making extradition swifter and easier between European member states. But campaigners have raised concerns about the application of the warrants, arguing that they are sometimes applied before a case is ready to prosecute, and that while they were originally intended to counter terrorism, their use has greatly increased. Seven hundred people were extradited from the UK under the system last year.

    Julian Assange to be extradited to Sweden, G, 24.2.2011, http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/24/julian-assange-extradition-sweden-verdict

Ex-soldier found guilty

of trying to murder wife with grenade

Nicholas Fabian was having affair with colleague and booby-trapped his pregnant wife's car, with her son also in vehicle

Vikram Dodd, crime correspondent
Guardian.co.uk
Thursday 17 February 2011
19.07 GMT
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 19.07 GMT on Thursday 17 February 2011.
A version appeared on p17 of the Main section section of the Guardian on Friday 18 February 2011.

A former soldier, who was having an affair with a woman he met through working at an animal charity, has been convicted of trying to kill his pregnant wife by planting a stolen grenade in her car.

A jury took just an hour to find Nicholas Fabian guilty at Maidstone crown court of attempting to murder Victoria Fabian by booby-trapping her car near their home in Vigo, Kent.

She suffered extensive leg injuries, but her unborn child survived the attack without injury as did her eight-year-old son from a previous relationship, who was also in the Mazda car.

The trial heard that Victoria Fabian had confronted her husband after discovering he was having an affair with a woman he met while working at the Brands Hatch branch of Battersea Dogs and Cats Home.

Fabian sent his mistress a text an hour before the explosion in March last year. It read: "Hello sexy, I love you so much xxx."

Fabian, who was still an army reservist and who was weeks away from being deployed to Afghanistan, stole the hand grenade from a firing range during weapons training.

Giving evidence, Victoria Fabian wept as she recalled the blast as she drove from the family home at lunchtime. "The windscreen shattered and there was a loud bang. I can remember thinking a tree or something had fallen on the car and Charlie was asking me what had happened, and I couldn't feel anything from my waist down so I told him to get out of the car."

She said the next thing she remembered was "Nick running towards me, crying".

"He was trying to get me out of the car. I remember feeling that I was losing a lot of blood."

The explosion blasted holes in her legs and she needed skin grafts to repair the damage. She remained in hospital for two months.

A fly-off lever from the L109 British army issue explosive grenade and safety pin were found by police along with a J-shaped fishing hook on the ground near the car, following the explosion.

Examination of the debris suggested the grenade had been strapped to the inside of the driver's side wheel-arch. A nylon line was attached to the grenade pin at one end and the fishing hook at the other.

If the line was kept taut and the barbed hook then inserted lightly into the tyre, the wheel would move just enough to pull out the safety pin, release the lever and prime the grenade to explode as the car was being driven out of the parking area at the back of the family home.

Outside court, Detective Inspector Lee Whitehead, of Kent police, said Fabian's wife had conflicting feelings about her husband's conviction. "She has got mixed emotions about the result of the trial. He is still the father of her children. It's difficult to understand how anyone could attempt to kill her while she was pregnant in such a callous manner."

Asked to describe Fabian, Whitehead said: "I would say he is a very dangerous and selfish man and all he wanted to do was clear the decks and move on with his girlfriend."

Police believe Fabian may have staged previous attempts to harm his wife. The prosecution blamed him for tampering with his wife's brake pipes in September 2009 and setting fire to the other family car, a Skoda, when it was parked behind their home.

Police investigated but it was only after the grenade attack on Victoria Fabian that her husband came under suspicion for the previous incidents. Fabian is due to be sentenced on Friday.

    Ex-soldier found guilty of trying to murder wife with grenade, G, 17.2.2011, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/feb/17/soldier-guilty-murder-wife-grenade

Yorkshire Ripper must die in prison, appeal court rules

Judges reject Sutcliffe plea, and say the interests of justice demand 'nothing less' than a whole life sentence.

Friday 14 January 2011
12.59 GMT
Guardian.co.uk
Alan Travis
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 12.59 GMT on Friday 14 January 2011.
A version appeared in the Guardian on Saturday 15 January 2011.
It was last modified at 14.24 GMT on Friday 14 January 2011.

The Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe, will spend the rest of his life behind bars, the court of appeal has ruled.

The former lorry driver, now 64 and known as Peter Coonan, was convicted in 1981 of murdering 13 women. He was ordered to serve "whole life minimum term" last year under 2003 criminal justice legislation giving judges the power to set tariffs in murder cases.

Sutcliffe originally received 20 life terms after being convicted of the murders of 13 women after his Old Bailey trial. He pleaded guilty to a further seven counts of attempted murder. A minimum term of 30 years was set before he could be considered for parole.

The serial killer challenged last year's ruling by Mr Justice Mitting that he should never be released on the grounds that the high court judge had failed to take into account evidence of his mental disorder at the time of the murders, or hear evidence from the clinical director of Broadmoor hospital.

But the lord chief justice, Lord Judge, Mr Justice Calvert-Smith and Mr Justice Griffith Williams today rejected the appeal, arguing that the passage of time did not make his account at his 1981 Old Bailey trial any more likely to be credible now than it was then.

"We are not, of course, suggesting that the man who perpetrated these crimes was, in any ordinary sense of the words, normal or average. The sheer abnormality of his actions themselves suggested some element of mental disorder," said Lord Judge. He added that there was no doubt Mr Justice Mitting took into account the fact that Sutcliffe was disturbed when he committed the murders when he set the "whole life'' sentence last year.

"There is however no reason to conclude that [Sutcliffe's] claim that he genuinely believed that he was acting under divine instructions to fulfill God's will carries any greater conviction now than it did when it was rejected by the jury," said Lord Judge. .

The three judges ruled that in any event the nature of the murders justified nothing less in the interests of justice than a whole life sentence. "An examination of the entire catalogue of the offences as a whole demonstrates that this was criminal conduct at the extreme end of horror.

"Each of the attempted murders, as well as each of the murder offences, taken on its own was a dreadful crime of utmost brutality: taking all the offences together we have been considering an accumulation of criminality of exceptional magnitude which went far beyond the legislative criteria for a whole life order.

"Even accepting that an element of mental disturbance was intrinsic to the commission of these crimes, the interests of justice require nothing less than a whole life order."

Sutcliffe's lawyers have 14 days to apply to the supreme court to see if they can appeal further on a point of general public importance.

    Yorkshire Ripper must die in prison, appeal court rules, G, 14.1.2011, http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2011/jan/14/yorkshire-ripper-must-die-in-jail

Man in nursery paedophile ring is given indeterminate sentence

Colin Blanchard to serve a minimum of nine years in jail after being sentence alongside two other members of gang

Steven Morris
Guardian.co.uk
Monday 10 January 2011
14.03 GMT
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 14.03 GMT on Monday 10 January 2011.
It was last modified at 16.24 GMT on Monday 10 January 2011.

Colin Blanchard, who was at the centre of a paedophile ring involving the nursery worker Vanessa George, was today given an indeterminate sentence with a minimum term of nine years.

The IT consultant Blanchard, 40, convinced four women – George, 40, Tracy Lyons, 41, Tracy Dawber, 44, and Angela Allen, 40 – to sexually assault young children and share the images.

Also sentenced alongside Blanchard at Bristol crown court were Lyons, who was jailed for seven years, and Dawber, who was jailed for four years. Fellow paedophiles George and Allen are already serving prison sentences.

Prosecutors have described the defendants as "one of the most sickening paedophile rings this country has seen". Passing sentence, Mr Justice Royce said: "Your influence Colin Blanchard, described this morning as Svengali-like, over four separate women so they engaged in sexual abuse of children in such tender years, is frightening.

"It is more extraordinary when one appreciates you never actually met three of them face to face. It is beyond the ken of decent people how any of you could stoop as disgustingly low as you did."

Before sentencing, the court was told that Blanchard, of Greater Manchester, was sexually abused by an uncle and tried to kill himself when he was a teenager.

Blanchard was now a "broken man … terribly isolated" who regretted his "disgusting behaviour" and could not understand why he acted as he did, his barrister, Greville Davis, told the court.

Prosecutors described the case as "one of the most sickening paedophile rings this country has seen".

The gang was smashed when a work colleague of Blanchard found child abuse images on his computer in June 2009 and called the police.

Detectives discovered that Blanchard met the women over the internet and encouraged them to abuse children and share the images of the abuse taking place.

Blanchard, George, Allen and Lyons pleaded guilty to a string of charges of sexual assault as well as making and possessing child pornography. Dawber, of Merseyside and the only woman who actually met Blanchard and was in a year-long relationship with him, was found guilty of sexually abusing a child and allowing Blanchard to take pictures of it.

Opening the case today, Simon Morgan, prosecuting, said that between December 2008 and June 2009 there were more than 7,000 contacts between George, a married mother-of-two, and Blanchard on what she called her "fun phone".

It emerged during the opening that Lyons – like George – had worked as a volunteer for a nursery, though only on two occasions and always with others.

Mitigating for Blanchard, Greville Davis said he was abused for "seven or eight years" by his uncle and his uncle's friends. This had left a "deep psychological scar" and in 1988 he tried to kill himself. His uncle was later convicted and died of a heart attack, the court heard.

During an interview with a psychiatrist, Blanchard claimed the four women members of the gang were the "sexual predators".

But Stephen Smyth, for Lyons, said Blanchard had a "Svengali-like" hold over her. He said Lyons, of Portsmouth, was dim and a vulnerable woman who was targeted by Blanchard. "He made her feel good about herself," he said. She had now lost her home, her children, friends and self respect, Davis said.

Ann Reddrop, the Crown Prosecution Service lawyer who dealt with all the cases, previously said: "Colin Blanchard turned out to be an evil man who controlled four women in one of the most sickening paedophile rings this country has seen.

"He encouraged these women to take and share ever more horrific images of the sexual abuse of children. As if that was not bad enough, he encouraged them to physically abuse children to produce those pictures."

    Man in nursery paedophile ring is given indeterminate sentence, G, 10.1.2011, http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/jan/10/colin-blanchard-sexually-abused

Investigation into grooming of vulnerable teenage girls for sex

Experts from Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre

to carry out work following indefinite jailing of two Asian men for abusing girls

Sunday 9 January 2011
10.19 GMT
Guardian.co.uk
Press Association
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 10.19 GMT on Sunday 9 January 2011.

The grooming of vulnerable teenage girls for sex is being investigated by the UK's specialist exploitation unit, it emerged today.

Experts from the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop) are to carry out the work following the indefinite jailing of two Asian men for abusing girls aged between 12 and 18.

The former home secretary Jack Straw sparked a backlash yesterday after claiming the conviction was evidence of a specific problem among young men in Britain's Pakistani community.

Ceop, which is affiliated to the Serious Organised Crime Agency, was set up in 2006, and its staff include police officers and members of organisations such as the NSPCC.

On Friday 28-year-old Mohammed Liaqat and Abid Saddique, 27, were jailed at Nottingham crown court for raping and sexually abusing several girls, often after giving them alcohol or drugs.

They were the key figures in a group of men who befriended girls aged 12 to 18 in the Derby area and groomed them for sex.

Straw, the MP for Blackburn, Lancashire, said such crimes were a "specific problem" in the Pakistani community, which needed to be "more open" about the reasons for them.

However, his fellow Labour MP Keith Vaz, who chairs the home affairs select committee, rejected his claims and insisted the case was not symbolic of any "cultural problem".

The children's charity Barnardo's, the Muslim Ramadhan Foundation youth group and a retired police chief also said Straw was wrong to highlight one community.

The judge in the case said he did not believe the crimes were "racially aggravated", but Straw said he thought vulnerable white girls were at risk of being targeted by some Asian men.

While most sex offenders were white, "there is a specific problem which involves Pakistani heritage men ... who target vulnerable young white girls", Straw told BBC2's Newsnight.

He said: "We need to get the Pakistani community to think much more clearly about why this is going on and to be more open about the problems that are leading to a number of Pakistani heritage men thinking it is OK to target white girls in this way."

Young men were "fizzing and popping with testosterone" but girls from the Pakistani community were "off limits", leading them to seek other outlets for their desires, he suggested.

"They see these young women, white girls who are vulnerable, some of them in care ... who they think are easy meat," he added.

"And because they're vulnerable, they ply them with gifts, they give them drugs, and then of course they're trapped."

Vaz said Straw's comments were "pretty dangerous" and indicated that he would confront his colleague over them when parliament resumed tomorrow.

"I have a lot of Pakistanis in my constituency, so does Jack Straw. I don't think this is a cultural problem," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"I don't think you can stereotype an entire community. What you can do is look at the facts of these national cases, give it to an agency, make a proper investigation and see how we can deal with these networks of people who are involved in this horrendous crime."

The Barnardo's chief executive, Martin Narey, said street grooming was "probably happening in most towns and cities" and that the victims were Asian as well as white.

And the Ramadhan Foundation chief executive, Mohammed Shafiq, who has previously raised the issue of sex abuse, said the comments were "deeply offensive".

"I have been clear in instigating this debate that these are criminal matters and should be seen in this way," he said.

"No community or faith ever sanctions these evil crimes, and to suggest that this is somehow ingrained in the community is deeply offensive.

"I urge all engaged in this debate to do so with tolerance, honesty and, above all, based on evidence and not prejudiced positions."

    Investigation into grooming of vulnerable teenage girls for sex, G, 9.1.2011, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jan/09/investigation-grooming-teenage-girls

Jersey: Haut de la Garenne children's home abuse scandal ends with one last conviction

Three-year probe ends in jail sentences for 'bullying' couple

Friday 7 January 2011
The Guardian
Ian Cobain
This article appeared on p14 of the Main section section of the Guardian on Friday 7 January 2011.
It was published on guardian.co.uk at 08.34 GMT on Friday 7 January 2011. It was last modified at 12.48 GMT on Friday 7 January 2011.

A long-running child abuse investigation that brought turmoil to the island of Jersey has finally ended with the conviction of two former children's home workers.

Morag Jordan and her husband Anthony were jailed for a series of assaults they inflicted on children at the Haut de la Garenne home over a period of more than 10 years in the 1970s and 80s. Five others - not all of them connected to the home - had previously been convicted of a number of sexual assaults as a result of the investigation, and received sentences of up to 15 years in jail.

Police say their three-year investigation, Operation Rectangle, has now ended.

The inquiry faced a series of criticisms, both from leading political figures on the island and from senior officers flown in from the mainland to review its progress. At one point, police said they believed they had recovered the remains of a child from the cellar of the home, only to later admit what they had thought to be a fragment of skull was a piece of coconut shell.

Despite the criticism, evidence of widespread abuse at the home was discovered: as well as the seven people convicted, police gathered evidence that could have led to the prosecution of a further 30 people who died before they could be brought before the courts.

Jordan and her husband, both 62, from Kirriemuir, Angus, were found guilty in November of eight separate charges.

During the two-week trial at the Royal Court of Jersey, they were accused of inflicting "casual and routine violence" while working as houseparents at Haut de la Garenne. Prosecutors said they acted like "intimidating bullies" and had carried out "frequent and callous" assaults on vulnerable residents.

Jordan was jailed for nine months and her husband for six months. Some of their victims sat in the court's public gallery to hear the sentences.

Morag Jordan was employed as a housemother between 1970 and 1984. She was convicted of charges relating to assaults on four children. Her husband was found guilty of common assault against two children. Morag Jordan was acquitted of a further 28 counts and her husband four.

Others convicted as a result of the abuse inquiry were:

• Gordon Claude Wateridge, found guilty of assault on three girls while working as a houseparent between 1969 and 1979

• Claude James Donnelly, jailed in 2009 for 15 years for rape and indecent assault

• Michael Aubin, given two years probation for sexual offences at Haut de la Garenne between 1977 and 1980

• Ronald George Thorne, convicted of gross indecency between 1983 and 1984, spent 12 months in prison

• Leonard Miles Vandenborn, jailed for 12 years for the rape and indecent assault of two young girls in the 1970s and 80s.

Last month, Jersey's chief minister, Senator Terry Le Sueur, apologised to all the children who suffered abuse at Haut de la Garenne. He told the island's parliament, the States of Jersey: "On behalf of the island's government, I acknowledge that the care system that operated historically in the island of Jersey failed some children in the States' residential care in a serious way. To all those who suffered abuse, whether confirmed by criminal conviction or not, the island's government offers its unreserved apology."

A number of victims are now bringing civil proceedings against the island's government.

Last July, a report commissioned from Wiltshire police levelled 19 criticisms at the investigation. It concluded that senior officers lacked leadership skills and worked ineffectively with the media, pointing out that the £7.5m cost of the investigation included more than £1m spent on travel, meals, hotels and entertainment.

At one point the island's chief police officer, Graham Power, was suspended, although disciplinary action was later abandoned. Power always denied any wrongdoing.

Haut de la Garenne was opened in 1867 as an industrial school for "young people of the lower classes of society and neglected children". During the second world war, occupying German forces used it as a signal station, and in 1945 it became a children's home again. There had been rumours for decades that children were suffering sexual and physical abuse – suspicions that the island's authorities appeared reluctant to investigate.

Senior police officers opened their inquiry in September 2007 and took 1,776 statements from 192 former child residents who identified around 150 people as abusers. A number of former residents went public to tell of their ordeal. Peter Hannaford, one of Jersey's leading trade union officials, who was sent to the home as an orphaned child, waived his right to anonymity to tell the Jersey Evening Post how his earliest memories were of abuse.

"Boys and girls were raped when I was there," he said. "The abuse was anything from rape and torture. It happened every night. And it happened to everyone."

• This article was amended on 7 January 2011 to clarify that not all of the five people mentioned as previously convicted of sexual assaults were connected to the Haut de la Garenne home.

    Jersey: Haut de la Garenne children's home abuse scandal ends with one last conviction, G, 7.1.2011, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jan/06/jersey-childrens-home-scandal-ends

It's not hard to feel a bit sorry for David Chaytor

He should have known better – but so should all sorts of colleagues, past and present,

who will not be spending the next few months in prison

Friday 7 January 2011
16.58 GMT
Guardian.co.uk
Michael White
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 16.58 GMT on Friday 7 January 2011.
It was last modified at 17.29 GMT on Friday 7 January 2011.

A lot of rough justice has been handed out in the scandal over MPs' expenses, and it's not hard to feel a bit sorry for David Chaytor as the ex-MP got an 18 month jail sentence for fraud. But justice it was – and it had to happen.

Why him and the clutch of others who may follow him? Why not others? Reading a summary of the offences described in court today, it seems that this could not have been administrative error, misjudgment or misunderstanding – all three got other MPs pilloried, often unfairly – but a serious assault on public money in excess of £20,000.

Chaytor should have known better. But so should all sorts of colleagues, past and present, who will not be spending the next few months in the slammer. And Chaytor, at 61, will carry the stigma for the rest of his life.

Ditto Michael Martin, the Speaker hypocritically ousted for a failure of leadership which clearly reflected what most MPs wanted him to do: defend the system. Lucky the financial sophisticates, MPs like David Cameron, who kept it simple by maxing out their allowances on a wholesome second mortgage.

In the 30 or so years I have spent around the Houses of Parliament, this is the worse thing to have befallen the British political class as a whole.

Governments and prime ministers come and go, but this was a blow to the entire system and public confidence in it. Decades may pass before it is forgotten.

Around Westminster, we all knew that MPs' expenses had become a bit lax and would occasionally write about some egregious example. The mileage rate for large cars stick in the mind – Scottish MPs were said to take advantage of it.

But we also knew why the system had arisen and that it was part of a wider culture – private sector (Fleet Street, for example), as well as public – that has since been tightened up. MPs were a special case because successive governments of both parties rarely found the courage to brave public wrath by raising backbench salaries at a time of wage restraint or cuts. Voters don't like it.

Tam Dalyell, the Labour ex-MP, recently told me how the Tory chief whip in 1964 – shortly after he was first elected, a relatively wealthy man – had told the cabinet that some Labour MPs lived in poverty and slept on the overnight train to save rent, while some Tories lived in genteel poverty.

Expenses were deployed to ease the strain and Margaret Thatcher fatally allowed mortgages, not merely rents, to be charged against the taxpayer. MPs in all parties have told me that the pre-Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) fees office would ring them and say: "You're not charging enough."

Here lay the fatal misunderstanding which allowed some MPs to regard their out-of-pocket expenses to be regarded as allowances, paid with no questions asked. The Daily Telegraph failed to provide context of that kind when it systematically worked its way through the leaked CDs, tarring the good with the bad and the slightly careless in the process.

The suspicion remains that the Tory hierarchy was happy to deploy public anger against older, non-Cameroon MPs who were "bed-blocking" safe seats, but not against court favourites. And I suspect Cameron's team reacted better than did Gordon Brown's because it had some prior notice.

Never mind – politics is a rough old business and, by the same token, some Tories still think the Guardian went after Jonathan Aitken and Neil Hamilton because they were Tories, not because they were engaged in misconduct.

Ditto Andy Coulson today. Ditto Vince Cable, for that matter. We are still awaiting the Telegraph's expose of what Tory cabinet members think of Nick Clegg's men.

The expenses regime has been cleaned up. Indeed, the hasty creation of Ipsa to police the new system has created a new problem – unfairness to MPs – which is only slowly being sorted out. The danger is that the job will soon only appeal to hair-shirted puritans with no kids or adult kids, or to those of wealthy independent means. It's already started to reshape the 2010 parliament.

For the record, MPs were unpaid until the radical Liberal chancellor David Lloyd George found them £400 a year in 1910, the annus mirabilis of progressive taxation when LG faced down the Lords. According to the National Archives ready-reckoner, that £400 is worth £22,824 today – so MPs on £65,738 have achieved a steady real-terms pay rise.

Ministers have done less well. Pitt the Younger got £5,000 a year as PM in 1800, a sum worth £160,000 today, but £292,000 in 1850, more stable times. The pay was increased to £10,000 in the 1930s when, according to the reckoner, it would be worth £396,000 in today's funny money.

Thanks to Brown's unilateral cut and his own 5% further cut, Cameron gets £142,000, including his MP's salary.

Investment bankers, busy upping their pay again as we speak, would not answer the phone for that sort of salary, but have suffered far less grief for their sins than MPs have. Who was the last British-based banker you can remember getting 18 months for fraud? And many of them are living off taxpayer largesse, too.

If that does not make you a little uncomfortable, consider the Telegraph's owners, the tax exile privacy freaks Dave and Fred Barclay. Then consider that the Telegraph's CDs have been deployed by the BNP to harry targeted MPs, merited or not. It's still going on.

Like I say, rough justice.

It's not hard to feel a bit sorry for David Chaytor, G, 7.1.2011,
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/jan/07/david-chaytor-mps-expenses-michael-white