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> After the Trial
After the Trial
The police should supply details of the case results to you if you request this under the Statement of National Standards of Witness Care in the Criminal Justice System. If you want a copy of a transcript or tape recording of a trial held in a Crown Court, you can put this request to the Court Manager before the trial and if they consent you can obtain a tape although you are likely to be charged for this. There are no recordings or transcripts of trials held in magistrates’ courts.
The Sentencing Process
Mitigation
After a person is convicted, arguments can be put forward by the defence barrister for a lighter sentence. This is called a Statement in Mitigation. Mitigation may involve putting forward a version of the facts which is in conflict with your version, or which casts aspersions on your character as the victim. Provisions in the Bar Standards Board Code of Conduct limit the circumstances in which derogatory mitigation can be made and, when it is, the defence must give advance notice to the prosecution. The Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act 1996 (sections 58-61) allows judges the power to impose reporting restrictions on derogatory assertions made in mitigation at a trial, or in a submission relating to sentence during an appeal.
Pre-sentence reports
The Probation Service’s National Standards for the Supervision of Offenders in the Community 2000, issued by the Home Office, includes the requirement that pre-sentence reports include an offence analysis which should assess the consequences of the offence, including what is known of the impact on any victim. This would be based on information gleaned from the prosecution file and will include your Victim Personal Statement if you have chosen to make one.
Sentencing
A Practice Direction on Victim Personal Statements issued by the Lord Chief Justice in October 2001 includes the role of a victim in relation to sentencing. It states:
‘The court must pass what it judges to be the appropriate sentence having regard to the circumstances of the offence and of the offender taking into account, so far as the court considers it appropriate, the consequences to the victim. The opinions of the victim or the victim's close relatives as to what the sentence should be are therefore not relevant, unlike the consequence of the offence on them. Victims should be advised of this. If despite the advice, opinions as to sentence are included in a statement, the court should pay no attention to them. The court should consider whether it is desirable in its sentencing remarks to refer to the evidence provided on behalf of the victim.’
The Attorney General has the power, if he or she thinks that a sentence in a case involving a serious violent offence is too lenient, to refer the case to the Court of Appeal. The Attorney General has only 28 days after the sentence within which to investigate and lodge this appeal. If you are the victim, or a relative in a homicide case, you can write to the Attorney General asking them to consider this.
An attempt by the mother of a murder victim to be involved in the sentencing of the offender failed in the case of McCourt v UK (1993). In T and V v UK (1999), the parents of the victim were granted leave to intervene in a case at the European Court of Human Rights brought by the youths convicted of their son’s murder. In R v Secretary of State for the Home Department and another, ex parte Bulger (2001) the Divisional Court held that the family of a murder victim did not have standing to seek judicial review of any tariff set in relation to the murder.
The Sentencing Process
Mitigation
After a person is convicted, arguments can be put forward by the defence barrister for a lighter sentence. This is called a Statement in Mitigation. Mitigation may involve putting forward a version of the facts which is in conflict with your version, or which casts aspersions on your character as the victim. Provisions in the Bar Standards Board Code of Conduct limit the circumstances in which derogatory mitigation can be made and, when it is, the defence must give advance notice to the prosecution. The Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act 1996 (sections 58-61) allows judges the power to impose reporting restrictions on derogatory assertions made in mitigation at a trial, or in a submission relating to sentence during an appeal.
Pre-sentence reports
The Probation Service’s National Standards for the Supervision of Offenders in the Community 2000, issued by the Home Office, includes the requirement that pre-sentence reports include an offence analysis which should assess the consequences of the offence, including what is known of the impact on any victim. This would be based on information gleaned from the prosecution file and will include your Victim Personal Statement if you have chosen to make one.
Sentencing
A Practice Direction on Victim Personal Statements issued by the Lord Chief Justice in October 2001 includes the role of a victim in relation to sentencing. It states:
‘The court must pass what it judges to be the appropriate sentence having regard to the circumstances of the offence and of the offender taking into account, so far as the court considers it appropriate, the consequences to the victim. The opinions of the victim or the victim's close relatives as to what the sentence should be are therefore not relevant, unlike the consequence of the offence on them. Victims should be advised of this. If despite the advice, opinions as to sentence are included in a statement, the court should pay no attention to them. The court should consider whether it is desirable in its sentencing remarks to refer to the evidence provided on behalf of the victim.’
The Attorney General has the power, if he or she thinks that a sentence in a case involving a serious violent offence is too lenient, to refer the case to the Court of Appeal. The Attorney General has only 28 days after the sentence within which to investigate and lodge this appeal. If you are the victim, or a relative in a homicide case, you can write to the Attorney General asking them to consider this.
An attempt by the mother of a murder victim to be involved in the sentencing of the offender failed in the case of McCourt v UK (1993). In T and V v UK (1999), the parents of the victim were granted leave to intervene in a case at the European Court of Human Rights brought by the youths convicted of their son’s murder. In R v Secretary of State for the Home Department and another, ex parte Bulger (2001) the Divisional Court held that the family of a murder victim did not have standing to seek judicial review of any tariff set in relation to the murder.
