header-logo header-logo

Human rights

22 January 2010
Issue: 7401 / Categories: Case law , Law digest
printer mail-detail

R (on the application of O’Dowd (aka Boy George)) v National Probation Service, London [2009] EWHC 3415 (Admin), [2010] All ER (D) 26 (Jan)

The proceedings concerned a challenge by the claimant, a well-known singer, songwriter and disc jockey known as “Boy George” to the decision of the Probation Service precluding him from participating in the television programme “Celebrity Big Brother”.

The court held that the unqualified obligation in s 2(2) of the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000 to have regard to the proper punishment of offenders applied to the management of offenders on licence. When considering what restrictions could properly be placed on offenders as incidents of supervision on licence, as part of a sentence of imprisonment, regard could be had to the expectations of right-thinking members of the democracy under whose laws a judge had imposed that sentence.

Those expectations were not to be discovered by reading editorials, articles or petitions in newspapers, whether broadsheet or tabloid. Right-thinking members of the public would take the view that an offender serving the non-custodial part

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

DWF—19 appointments

DWF—19 appointments

Belfast team bolstered by three senior hires and 16 further appointments

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Firm strengthens leveraged finance team with London partner hire

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Double hire marks launch of family team in Leeds

NEWS
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this week's NLJ
In this week's NLJ, Steven Ball of Red Lion Chambers unpacks how advances in forensic science finally unmasked Ryland Headley, jailed in 2025 for the 1967 rape and murder of 75-year-old Louisa Dunne. Preserved swabs and palm prints lay dormant for decades until DNA-17 profiling produced a billion-to-one match
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
Writing in NLJ this week, Victoria Rylatt and Robyn Laye of Anthony Gold Solicitors examine recent international relocation cases where allegations of domestic abuse shaped outcomes
back-to-top-scroll