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Lawyers & Lawcourts

Thursday, 18 August 2011

Tough riot sentences prompt new guidelines for the courts

New guidelines to advise judges and magistrates on handing out exemplary justice to people implicated in major civil disturbances are likely in the wake of the thousands of court hearings arising from last week's riots.

The decision by judge Elgan Edwards, in Chester Crown Court, to hand down four-year prison sentences to Jordan Blackshaw and Perry Sutcliffe-Keenan – who tried to organise riots on Facebook – is reputed to have alarmed some of the more liberal members of the Sentencing Council.

The council's spokesman yesterday emphasised that they have no official view on the sentences, because they have not met since the riots, but confirmed they will issue new guidelines if requested. The case has also created tension inside the Government

 

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