Police Law Blog European Decisions Statutory Materials

Low threshold for an inquest jury

  • An inquest jury should have been called where a vulnerable witness fell ill and died in a police station.
  • The requirement for a jury where death results from the act or omission of a police officer is a ‘low threshold’.
  • The threshold can be cleared by suspicion that the police could or should have done more to prevent the death of someone who ‘needed looking after’.

Gangbos – all in it together

  • Injunctions to prevent gang-related violence, pursuant to Policing and Crime Act 2009 section 34.
  • Orders are not confined to restraining particular conduct relating to the individual.
  • The court is entitled to consider the conduct attributed to the gang as a whole.

Football banning orders – all or nothing

  • A football banning order must apply to all regulated matches.
  • A magistrates’ court may not permit a person to attend some matches but not others.
  • Attendance at a football match does not engage article 8.

Damages for unlawful arrest, consequent assault and unlawful detention

  • The High Court assessed damages for three Claimants at £2,500, £11,950 and £7,000.
  • Police officers’ denying the allegations against them during disciplinary investigations and a criminal trial could not sound in aggravated damages;
  • No damages for being cross-examined robustly by the officers’ counsel in criminal proceedings.

Words on arrest

  • It is not an essential condition of a lawful arrest that a constable should verbally formulate a charge.
  • What is required is that the arrested person be told the act for which they are being arrested.