After Woodcock confirmed no general duty to warn, debate turns to the criminal law. Writing in NLJ this week, Charles Davey of The Barrister Group urges revival of misprision or a modern equivalent
Citing the Southport attack, he argues ‘it is time to introduce an obligation on those with information to report it to the police’.
Once, failure to disclose a felony was itself an offence; today only narrow statutory duties apply. Northern Ireland and other jurisdictions retain broader models.
The ‘precise ingredients’ may be contested, he concedes, ‘but debate there must be’.
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