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Crime brief: 28 April 2023

© Copyright LexisNexis 2026. All Rights Reserved.
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

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