Debate contribution: Criminal Justice System: Failure to Transform

Debate contribution by Mr Jon Burrows on 6 October 2025.

MLA: Mr Jon Burrows
Party at the time: Ulster Unionist Party
Date: 6 October 2025
Type: Debate contribution
Business: Private Members' Business
Heading: Criminal Justice System: Failure to Transform
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 5157459

Text

There is a grave crisis facing our justice system, which is now the softest and slowest in the United Kingdom and which lets down victims. A dangerous culture has emerged that puts perpetrators first and victims last. I will particularly look at violence against women and girls, sexual violence and domestic violence against women. This is a case study of what is wrong in our justice system. I say at the start that you cannot have transformational change without transformational leadership. That will not be delivered by the current Justice Minister, who has failed to grip the issues at hand. Let me talk about domestic violence for a moment. Delay is described as anathema to justice, but when it comes to domestic violence, delay is deadly for women. At every point where there is a delay in a domestic violence case, the chance of the woman dropping out of the case increases exponentially. Suspects in domestic violence, as a tactic, plead not guilty until the very last moment, hoping that the victim will drop out. It is also the case that the judges give bail to people because the case is so delayed that they cannot justify holding them on remand. So you have a case where either the victim drops out or the suspect, who has terrified the victim, gets out and kills the victim, as has happened numerous times, or else the victim drops the case.
Yes, I will.
I am afraid that, for many, it is too little, too late. I have been calling for these things for years. The Minister needs to take responsibility for her —.
It is unjustifiable and beyond refutation that we have a slow criminal justice system. However, instead of dealing with it, we have talked around the edges. Here is how you deal with it. You change the sentencing guidelines to make it the case that, if you do not plead guilty until the last minute, you get no credit. In fact, you should get an exemplary sentence so that everybody knows —.
No, I will not give way again because my time is short. Delays are anathema. We are also the softest justice system in the UK. Consistently, the figures show that our sentencing is soft and getting softer. The number of sexual crimes has gone up by 50%, but the number of those who are found guilty of those crimes and end up in prison has gone down by 50%. There is a clear trend. Again, victims of domestic violence or domestic assault not only say, "Look, this is going to be a long trial" —. The Justice Minister is chatting while I am speaking, but these are really important issues, Justice Minister. We do not see you often in the Chamber, so it would be good if you listened about domestic violence, because it is a really important issue. Sexual assault —
I apologise. Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. We are getting softer, and victims see a long process with very little outcome. That dissuades victims from making statements and staying the course. These are things that we can change. Often, the PPS sends things to the wrong court. Time and time again, the PPS sends things to the Magistrates' Court that belong in the Crown Court. I have seen cases where the maximum sentence available by law is 14 years, and a prosecutor sends it to the Magistrates' Court, where, to begin with, you start with a one-year sentence. A culture has crept in whereby the perpetrator comes first and the victim comes last. The PSNI is affected by it. Just today, it has announced that it will not release the mugshot of someone who was convicted of rape and is on the run. Why? It is because the human rights aspect has been interpreted wrongly. It is the same with smoking in prison: long after it was banned in Great Britain, our prison officers' lungs are subject to passive smoking, because the Northern Ireland Prison Service has not banned smoking; it put the prisoner before the prison officer. That is what is wrong in our system. It needs transformational leadership, and we are not going to get it. It is time that we stood up for the victim and made people pay for their crimes.

719 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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