When is a rape not a rape? When the perpetrator is asleep. In the summer of 2003, a mixed group gathered at a grand house in the Beaches district of Toronto. It was an annual thing — a house party …
The Tories are criminally blind
Perhaps the most shocking thing about the killing of Thomas O’Halloran was how unsurprising it seemed. The details are awful: an 87-year-old man, known for his local fundraising, stabbed to death while sitting in his mobility scooter in a suburb …
Barristers need to strike
In a remote and smelly robing room in Isleworth Crown Court there remains pinned to a wall a notice from 2007. It tells barristers to sign in on the new computer system “to avoid delays to your pay”. In the …
Can the Secret Barrister tell the truth?
“Actually the judge’s analysis of the applicable guidelines is wholly unimpeachable. You’re welcome.” Legal Twitter’s centrist bellwether The Secret Barrister heard your petit bourgeois whining about criminals being given nothing more than a slap on the wrist and is making …
How the Netherlands became a narco state
Amsterdam
A hit squad compared to a “well-oiled murder machine”. A lawyer and journalist shot on the streets of Amsterdam. A blasé approach to killing the wrong person — there’s even slang for every accidental victim: a vergismoord. Welcome to …
Mandatory Vaccination of Contractors – South Africa
Many companies have already implemented mandatory vaccination schemes for the employees and now seek to extend the policies to anyone entering their premises, including suppliers, tenants and consultants. What are your rights if you are on the receiving end of…
Episode 411 – States of Emergency
As we enter the Age of Biosecurity, we find ourselves living quite literally in a state of emergency. But what does this mean? And what does it imply for the future of the resistance to the killing machine that is …
Is it illegal to insult Captain Tom?
When the Comanche chief Tosahwi surrendered to Philip Sheridan in 1869, he described himself as “a good Indian”. “The only good Indian,” the General is said to have replied, “is a dead Indian”. This genocidal epigram has been adapted for …
Norway doesn’t understand evil
Anders Breivik is a monster who deserves a slow and painful death. But Norwegian criminal justice is far too humane to grant this most inhumane of killers that kind of punitive treatment: Breivik, who murdered 77 people in a far-Right …
