Matthew Scott's Legal Comment Argument and Discussion. Comment Awards 2015 Best Independent Blog
Lucy Connolly’s appeal against sentence was heard on 15th May. Somewhat unusually for an appeal against sentence she was not given an immediate decision. The three judges hearing the case have reserved judgment, and say they will produce their judgment “as soon as possible.”
What are the chances that they will decide to reduce her 31 month prison sentence? Continue reading “Will Lucy Connolly win her appeal against sentence?”
The Metropolitan Police has a rather strange notice about “hate crimes” on its website. It has attracted quite a bit of attention on social media.
Hate crimes and hate incidents
If someone commits a criminal offence and the victim, or anyone else, believes it was motivated by prejudice or hate, we class this as a ‘hate crime’. It means the offender can be charged for the crime itself and also their reasons for doing it.
If someone does something that isn’t a criminal offence but the victim, or anyone else, believes it was motivated by prejudice or hate, we would class this as a ‘hate incident’. Though what the perpetrator has done may not be against the law, their reasons for doing it are. This means it may be possible to charge them with an offence.
Let’s break this down, sentence by sentence. Continue reading “The Met has a problem with hate-crime. It can’t explain what it means.”