Feb 25

A Yorkshire law firm has passed a milestone by donating more than £1,000,000 of free legal advice. Leeds MPs and the Law Society have praised Grahame Stowe Bateson (GSB) for hosting free advice surgeries every Wednesday since opening its first office in 1981.

Led by Grahame Stowe, the firm now operates across seven locations in Leeds and Harrogate.

Mr Stowe’s wife, leading divorce lawyer Marilyn Stowe, has also been applauded for her pro-bono work. While working with GSB, Mrs Stowe unearthed crucial medical evidence which secured the release of Sally Clark, wrongly convicted of murdering her two sons. She runs her own firm, Stowe Family Law.

Mr Stowe said: “Pro-bono advice is a way law firms can really contribute and put something back into the communities they work in. It is far more effective than just handing over a cheque.

“I’m very proud that we have sustained this commitment for over a quarter of a century and am delighted with all the work the team has put in to achieve this milestone.”

Paul Marsh, president of the Law Society, said: “The value of GSB’s pro-bono work should be an inspiration for other law firms and businesses. It has shown a real commitment to providing access to justice, which is priceless to those who benefit from the advice provided.”

Leeds North West MP Greg Mulholland (Lib Dem) said: “I believe this is an essential and much needed service, particularly as legal aid funding is becoming ever more difficult to access.”

Fabian Hamilton, Labour MP for Leeds North East: “The public often believes that lawyers only care about the fees they are paid and not about the clients they represent. GSB is a firm that shows clearly why many lawyers went into their profession: to help vulnerable people who need legal advice gain equal access to the law, one of the essential elements of a real democracy.”

During November the practice waived £50,000 in fees as part of Will Aid, a national initiative where lawyers donate their services to support nine UK charities including the NSPCC, the British Red Cross and Help the Aged.

The firm’s expertise has also been recognised by Leeds University, which appointed GSB to provide pro-bono advice to its students. 

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Feb 20

RARELY, it seems, does a week to go by without a member of the Government proclaiming they are winning the ‘war’ on crime – and flaunting the latest statistics to support their case. However, the statisticians have now begun to fight back. The country’s most senior data gatherer Sir Michael Scholar, head of the UK Statistics Authority, publicly scalded the Government for claiming data showed a 27 per cent fall in stab wound hospital admissions – for which Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has since apologised.

The sad truth is that if we continue in this spiral of manipulating figures to meet political ends, the public’s confidence in the entire criminal justice system will be undermined – and that can only benefit criminals.

A further salvo to be fired in the debate came from Rod Morgan, the former chairman of the Youth Justice Board, who accused the Government of “perpetrating smoke and mirror exercises” with youth crime statistics.

He claimed that more than 19,000 children and young people issued with penalty notices for minor offences of anti-social behaviour were not included in official figures – which were heralded at the time for showing a supposed 10 per cent reduction in youth crime.

Had this group been included, the reduction would have been wiped out, and the credibility of the Government’s youth crime agenda called into question.

A cynic might suggest that this group was deliberately excluded to suggest falling figures and promote the new initiative of fixed-penalty notices administered by the police.

During my career, I have witnessed the entrenchment of the target-culture and performance monitoring in the criminal justice system. The most worrying aspect has been the increasing frequency with which offenders are released with cautions.

My colleagues and I have certainly seen a notable decline in the number of young people being brought before the courts, while the numbers of offenders given final warnings – even for serious offences – is a further blow for the victims of crime.

Why this may have happened is, of course, a topic of intense debate. The Government and its supporters would claim this is a result of policy introduction and not a cause for concern, but others see and feel an increasing sense of lawlessness involving gangs of youths and simply do not believe what they hear at the dispatch box.

In an ideal world, the statistics would help us shed light on the true situation, but at present we are simply unable to take them at face value.

If we are to rebuild public confidence in the criminal justice system, there must be wholesale reform of the way data is collected and presented.

As has been suggested by several commentators already, there is a clear need for a truly independent statistics watchdog which controls government information. Of particular importance to criminal justice is that this body must also decide which information it collects.

While high conviction rates are no bad thing, the public needs to know if they are being achieved by significant reductions in the number of cases being brought to court.

Ultimately, politicians will always seek to present themselves in the best possible light and claim they are ‘winning’ the war on crime. Equally, there is a clear need to ensure progress can be measured, to allow good work and for successful initiatives to be recognised and expanded.

I certainly feel much more needs to be done to represent the feelings and worries of victims of crime. At present, the British Crime Survey is the only national indicator of the public’s fear of crime, but there is very little data measuring how many victims of crime are confident justice has been done, or indeed that they have been well served by authorities.

Furthermore, it is absolutely right that in the course of this debate, the issue of police accountability is raised. I, myself, have written to Ministers raising the issue of Whitehall targets putting undue pressure on the police and resulting in deeply unjust decisions in pursuit of improved performance figures.

And, throughout all the media stories lambasting ‘dodgy’ data amid cries of ’spin’ and statistical tomfoolery, the deep-rooted fears and needs of the victims of crime are nearly always forgotten - a lesson that those individuals and politicians in a position of power need to heed.

Grahame Stowe is senior partner at the law firm Grahame Stowe Bateson.   

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Jan 13

The grandson of anti-gun campaigner Pat Regan was ordered to be detained indefinitely at a secure mental hospital after he admitted killing her in a frenzied knife attack.Rakeen Regan, 21, loved his grandmother and she doted on him but he developed severe paranoid schizophrenia which made him delusional, Leeds Crown Court heard.

Mrs Regan even asked for him to be returned home with her after he was taken to hospital the night before he attacked her in her flat in Leeds.
He had been taken to an accident and emergency unit after exhibiting bizarre behaviour.

Today Regan denied murder but admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and this plea was accepted by the prosecution.
He also admitted wounding a railway manager with intent.

Judge Peter Collier QC heard that Mrs Regan suffered a series of stab wounds to her head and neck when her grandson attacked her in her home in Marlborough Grange, Leeds, on June 1 last year.

She was found with part of a broken knife embedded in her eye.
The court heard that Regan’s mental health had deteriorated in the early part of the year.

In the days before the incident he had been arrested by police and after his release claimed officers had tried to rape him.

He also claimed aliens were trying to get him, and that “reptilians” were all over the place.

Jeremy Richardson QC, prosecuting, told the court that, as the defendant became more delusional, he claimed his grandmother was a paedophile.

He was taken to accident and emergency at St James Hospital, in Leeds, on the night before the attack.

Regan was assessed by a mental health nurse who weighed up whether to release him with medication or to detain him under the Mental Health Act.

But Mrs Regan asked for her grandson to come home with her.
Graham Hyland QC, defending, told the court: “It was Pat Regan’s wish for him to come home with medication. Tragically that wish, born out of her love and concern for the welfare of her grandson, cost Pat Regan her life the following morning.”

After sentencing, Judge Collier asked whether health professionals could learn lessons for the future from the way in which Regan was dealt with at the accident and emergency unit.

He stressed he was not seeking to criticise anyone’s decisions and said “hindsight is a wonderful thing”.

But he urged health trusts to examine situations where families ask for relatives suffering from mental illness not to be detained.

He added: “It’s important to understand that those involved who made the decisions at the time were acting entirely properly.”

Mrs Regan founded the Leeds branch of Mothers Against Violence, a voluntary organisation dedicated to offering support and education to those affected by violent crime.

Her motivation was the murder of her son Danny, who was gunned down on his doorstep in St Helens, Merseyside, in December 2002.

The judge heard the defendant was badly affected by this shooting.
He was told that this and a serious assault on him may have contributed to his mental health problems.

The judge also praised railway station manager David Clark, who was attacked by Regan at Leeds Station after he killed his grandmother.

The court heard Regan was found on the tracks at the station and he attacked Mr Clark, who was trying to stop him going back on to the rails.

Mr Hyland said: “He loved his grandmother and she loved him.

“It’s perfectly clear that were it not for the onset of this terrible illness these events would not have occurred.”

Speaking afterwards, Regan’s solicitor, Grahame Stowe, said: “This is a very tragic case for Rakeen’s family.”It shows the clear dangers that follow when a serious mental disorder goes untreated.” Mr Stowe said his client had the “full support” of his family. “They fully support Rakeen,” he said. “Essentially, it was not his fault.”

The court was told Regan would be detained at the Rampton special hospital, near Retford, in Nottinghamshire.

 

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