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Crime brief: 28 April 2023

28 April 2023 / David Walbank KC
Issue: 8022 / Categories: Features , Procedure & practice , Criminal
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David Walbank KC reports on anthropomorphism in court & the legal protections accorded to animals
  • Limits of the criminal law.
  • Sexual harm prevention orders.
  • Public protection.

In the heyday of the print media, budding young Marshall Halls would compete to see whose cases could generate the most lurid Evening Standard headlines. My own personal best was a billboard appearing on news stands across the metropolis, which barked out the news of the hour: ‘Stay of Execution for Devil Dog!’

I had been instructed by animal rights campaigners (with the vocal support of Carla Lane, the much-loved creator of The Liver Birds and Bread) to seek what was literally a stay of execution for Otis. Otis was a wholly innocent puppy, who had the great misfortune to be spotted by an ever-vigilant constable in the back of my client’s white van as it sped along the Blackwall Tunnel Northern Approach Road. The problem was threefold: the officer thought that Otis looked suspiciously like ‘a dog

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

DWF—Jenny Leonard

DWF—Jenny Leonard

Former Metropolitan Police director joins police, care and justice team

Charles Russell Speechlys—Ed Morgan

Charles Russell Speechlys—Ed Morgan

Corporate real estate and funds expertise expands with partner hire

Hill Dickinson—Helen Foley, Charlotte Fallon & Gary Parnell

Hill Dickinson—Helen Foley, Charlotte Fallon & Gary Parnell

Firm grows London business services team with trio of partner hires

NEWS
AlphaBiolabs has made a £500 donation to Sean’s Place, a men’s mental health charity based in Sefton, as part of its ongoing Giving Back initiative
Human rights lawyers, social justice champion, co-founder of the law firm Bindmans, and NLJ columnist Sir Geoffrey Bindman KC has died at the age of 92 years
The government’s plan to introduce a Single Professional Services Supervisor could erode vital legal-sector expertise, warns Mark Evans, president of the Law Society of England and Wales, in NLJ this week
Writing in NLJ this week, Jonathan Fisher KC of Red Lion Chambers argues that the ‘failure to prevent’ model of corporate criminal responsibility—covering bribery, tax evasion, and fraud—should be embraced, not resisted
Professor Graham Zellick KC argues in NLJ this week that, despite Buckingham Palace’s statement stripping Andrew Mountbatten Windsor of his styles, titles and honours, he remains legally a duke
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