A judge sitting at Hull Crown Court, HH Judge Thackray KC, has asked why some rioters have not been charged with riot.
“The prosecution do need to look, for those who are playing front and central roles, at the alternative charge of riot rather than violent disorder.”
I am not accusing Judge Thackray of some terrible unconstitutional power-grab, but on the whole judges should be cautious about making charging suggestions to the prosecution. It is not their job to choose the charges and judges need to be, and be seen to be, scrupulously impartial.
Nevertheless, his suggestion is an obvious one and it’s worth asking why the most serious riots in the last twelve years do not appear (yet) to have resulted in any prosecutions for Riot (to avoid confusion, in this post I’ll use the capitalised form to refer to the offence).
So far, most of those appearing in the Crown Court seem to have been charged, at most, with Violent Disorder, a charge under S.2 of the Public Order Act 1986 for which the maximum sentence is 5 years, although in practice, with credit given for an early guilty plea, sentences of 2 – 3 years are much more likely even in the current atmosphere where the need for deterrence has eclipsed the other purposes of sentencing. Riot is a much more serious offence and carries a maximum sentence of 10 years. Continue reading “Why have the rioters not been charged with rioting?”