News and Knowledge

How safe are you at work? Man assaults shop worker and police officer

Questions have been raised about how safe you really are at work, after a man assaulted a local shop worker and an on-duty police officer earlier this month.   Adam Bennett of Adelaide Court in Bedworth was sentenced to two weeks imprisonment and ordered to pay a victims’ surcharge of £154 this month after assaulting…

XL Bully ban – Everything you need to know after rise in fatal attacks

XL Bully dogs have been banned by the government under new laws. The new rules will come into force at the end of the year as the government pledges to protect the public following a rise in fatal attacks.   Following on from a recent article we wrote on the subject, XL Bullies have been…

The CICA appeal process

An article was posted on the Solicitors Journal website on the 25th October, entitled ‘Crime victims received six times more injury compensation at appeal’.   Within the article it explains how analysis shows that victims of crime face being under-compensated for their injuries if they do not make a challenge by appealing the CICA’s (Criminal…

Transgender hate crime hits record high

According to recent Home Office figures, transgender hate crime rose in the 2022-2023 period.   Conversely, the report also recorded that racist and homophobic hate crimes had fallen for the first time on record. The rise in transgender hate crime overall equates to 11%, totalling 4,723 cases recorded.     Racist hate crimes fell by…

Serial rapist in Metropolitan Police admits to numerous offences spanning over two decades

David Carrick first joined the Metropolitan Police Force in 2001 at age 26. Within the first year, Carrick had already been investigated by his own colleagues within the Met in relation to the assault and harassment of an ex-partner.   From here Carrick’s behaviour worsened and his crimes only increased in severity as, between 2002…

Extra stop and search powers given to police after knife attack at The Springs Retail Park, Leeds

On 09/12/2022, West Yorkshire Police were called to an incident at The Springs Retail Park – Colton after receiving reports of a man entering a shop armed with a knife.   The areas between H&M and JD Sports were cordoned off by Police after they found 2 men injured; one with stab wounds to his…

Street harassment and safety for women and girls

Following the tragic deaths of Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa, multiple organisations have desperately reached out to the government to put more serious measures in place to protect women and girls.   Earlier this year, we saw the cases of non-fatal strangulation being included as specific crimes relating to domestic violence under the Serious Crime…

Leeds Women’s Aid 50th Anniversary celebration – Here’s what I learnt

Leeds Women’s Aid was founded in 1972 by a group of feminist activists, and their first refuge consisted of two broken down houses in Burley.   At the time of setting the charity up, it was still legal in the UK for men to rape their wives. Hosted in Millennium Square on 06/10/2022, the 50th anniversary…

Rejected Manchester bombing CICA claims

Recent statistics have shown that nearly half (44.67%) of applications submitted to the CICA in relation to the 2017 Manchester bombing were rejected.   This means that 331 out of 741 applications have been denied compensation – with 97 cases still currently pending. Many would be surprised by these statistics, as the rejection rate for…

Review on Unspent Convictions

BBC Three documentary The Man Who Used HIV as a Weapon (2019) highlighted the story of the first man convicted in the UK for deliberately spreading HIV.   The assailant, Darryl Rowe, was charged in 2018 with a life sentence after infecting nine men with the disease. Under the CICA Scheme, victims of this specific…