All of Mr Jon Burrows’s imported questions, contributions and motions in this mandate, newest first, including those assessed as not flagged, uncertain or not yet analysed.
Miss McAllister is showing that she does not understand the principle of the minimum age of criminal responsibility. The charge is irrelevant. That is how you dispose of a case when you have sufficient evidence. You either charge or you do not. She is quite right; you can gather evidence before a charge is put. If you…
I agree. The amendments are beyond rescuing. They would need to be fundamentally rewritten. The change would have to be made in a youth justice Bill. That is the appropriate and responsible way of dealing with the issue. In principle, I would like to strengthen some of the provisions of the youth justice system and…
I would never speak ill of my former colleague. The five offences that are listed — May I continue? No evidence has been presented for why the five offences are listed and other offences are not, other than that it may be because of the expertise of the drafters. Why is there a cliff edge by age or by offence? Why…
What a stunning admission of the absolute folly of making a fundamental change to our criminal justice system on the back of a Back-Bench amendment: that the Back-Benchers do not have the expertise to draft properly in law, and yet we were going to pass a law tonight that was going to endanger our citizens.
The list has been drawn up on the back of a fag packet. It has been designed so that the Members who tabled the amendments can give some comfort to the public by saying, "Look: in this extreme case, action will be taken. Don't worry: there will be no outrage". However, it has been done so amateurishly as to include…
It seems that, when reality collides with theory, those on the opposite side of the House want to shout me down. Let me finish the examples that I was giving. Upskirting would not be a crime if the suspect was one day below 14, and, if the teacher rang the police because the suspect denied it and that person had an…
We have established that, between the ages of 10 and 11, there is complete immunity, and then, between the ages of 12 and 13, there is immunity for all offences bar five that effectively relate to murder, rape, attempted murder and attempted rape. It is all done by an amendment: a radical rewriting of our criminal…
The Bulger case in Liverpool involved Venables and Thompson, two 10-year-olds, who selected a victim. It was clear that they were out looking for a victim. Some Members are shaking their heads, but we are talking about a real case. The victim's parents are still — These are important matters, and my voice should be…
At the very core of my values is putting victims and public protection first; it would go against every fibre of my being to do anything less. Some debates in the Chamber are administrative, technical or abstract. This one was not. This debate was going to fundamentally change our justice system; it went to the heart…
I stood in the middle of the Newtownards Road confronting people who were wearing masks, with no police presence and surrounded by 50 or 60 men. Nobody uses me, nobody intimidates me and I always stand for victims.
The fundamental problem with that statistically is that it does not have a control sample. You are saying that someone who commits an offence will naturally have a propensity to commit more offences and, therefore, by definition, will be more likely to be in the criminal justice system in the future. It is a vacuous…
The most important thing is that we think of the public rather than about bringing along people in this place. Do you have any concern, as I do, about something as nonsensical as attempted murder or rape being prosecutable but not conspiracy to murder or rape or aiding and abetting murder or rape? How is that fair?…
There is a real danger that the young person could be penalised by being over-charged. Many cases are borderline between assault occasioning actual bodily harm and grievous bodily harm or between grievous bodily harm and attempted murder. The PPS may run with the higher charge, so there is no accountability. An issue…
The Member makes a good point that there are offences that are incomplete offences short of murder. Attempted murder is included, but the Member is quite right to say that conspiracy to murder is not. There is a recent example — I will be brief — of a child being prosecuted in England for aiding and abetting the rape…
The logical conclusion is that some offences have been chosen not because the young person understands the difference between right and wrong but because of the outrage that the public would have if there were immunity, and that a child —