One of the immense privileges of being a Barrister, clerk, or member of staff at one of the Inns of Court is that you get access to a part of London that is forever locked in time; Temple becomes yours. The name ‘Temple’ comes from the Medieval group, the Knights Templar, who based their headquarters in the area from the 1160s until they were dissolved in 1312.

I’m by no means a permanent resident so if you are, please do add to this 🧵

I played a small role in uncovering a private prosecution scandal involving false allegations of selling puppies a few years ago.

A sham charity had been set up, and was using dodgy solicitors to scam people (and central public funds) out of thousands. What the charity would do would be to mount dodgy investigations into people they accused of selling puppies online, Summons them to the Magistrates’ court and they would instruct a firm of private solicitors to turn up to court and prosecute them.

I’m going to tell you the story of one of the worst nights in two police officers’ careers.

We’ll call them PC Smith and Special PC (SPC) Jones. They work for the English Transport Coppers (ETC)

The antihero of the piece will be called Liam. One fine summer’s evening, PC Smith and SPC Jones are out doing a run-of-the-mill job. They found a runaway child at the train station and they arranged to hand said child back to her parents on a motorway bridge.

So far, so normal.

There was a paedophile in my NCT class.

I went out with my NCT friends from said class last night and it reminded me of the horror show we all experienced, during the sleep deprived blur of first-time motherhood.

Thread 🧵 🪡 The first question you will be asking is “how can this happen? Don’t NCT do basic vetting checks, like… googling people?”

The answer is no, no they do not.

The second question is probably “how did you find out?!”

Yesterday’s thread went viral, with lots of questions and commentary about speaking to people who have a diagnosis of autism (and lots of people with autism commenting too) so I put together a thread based on the toolkit on planning to question someone with an ASD 👇 Remember everyone is different so if you’re applying this to your loved one, you know them best, adapt it to suit the way you are used to them engaging (and their interests).

The toolkits are generic but repeatedly refers to the need for an individualistic approach.

Husband: what did you do at school today?

Child: nothing

Husband: oh

Me: no you need to use the vulnerable witness toolkit and go to the section on cross examining young children

Husband: give over?

Me: seriously, watch this

*demonstrates*

Child: *tells me all about day* OK given lots of parents would like these tips and it’s actually lovely to hear your little one chatter away about their day, I’ll give you some prompt questions to try out in this thread

One of the joys (& stresses, of course) of @FreeFromFearUK’s work is our role supporting British soldiers & officers who are working to achieve the evacuation of their former 🇦🇫 interpreters. We have been honoured to have acted as the bridging link for many of these fine people. It meant we could receive messages like this from them when they finally achieved their end goal.

🏛️ A day in the life of a criminal barrister and parent 🏛️

0000hrs: up reading briefs, checking which Judge, putting notes on DCS, preparing cases for morning, reading evidence and making notes of key dates, drafting submissions. Ensure school bags ready.

0100hrs or later - 😴 0550hrs: up with children, get up, get suit on, get them fed and ready for school

0750hrs: leave for school. On way speak to instructing solicitor on largest case of the day to try to understand evidential gaps in served evidence as it is a new case

This lawyer got ChatGPT to write the submissions (plainly nonsense) and in doing so, it fabricated authority citations.

When the (angry) Judge requested the cases, the lawyer went back and got ChatGPT to FABRICATE THE CASES.

Someone is going to jail…. 👀

https://twitter.com/questauthority/status/1662273759259295746

https://twitter.com/kathryntewson/status/1662276162964578304

Arrived at court at 0850 with first hearing at 10. Did not stop case after case. Serious cases piled up on top of one another, covering for others held up elsewhere, constantly apologising to judges. All of us in the same boat. Tired, feet hurt, no time for breaks or water. There just aren’t enough of us to go around anymore and all of us pass one another with grim, fixed, tired but sympathetic expressions on our faces. How much longer can we all go on like this?

FAR RIGHT SEX OFFENDERS

For all its talk of protesting against refugee paedophiles, the far right has long been a hotbed of sex offenders.

List [not exhaustive]: Robert Ewing, who murdered schoolgirl Paige Chivers after developing an “inappropriate sexual interest” in her, was later prosecuted for abusing 2 other children in the 1990s. In 2013, Ewing wrote on Facebook, “Iv taken an interest in the EDL and iv attended a couple of demo’s.”

Thread 🧵 from a former defendant on the #barristerstrike

“As someone who was (rightly) prosecuted for breaking the law, I would not have got through it without the brilliant care of my solicitor and barrister.… ..I had never been in any trouble before, and pleaded guilty immediately, but the whole process took over 2 years (from police to magistrates court to crown court to sentencing), and the depression and thoughts of suicide would have overwhelmed me if it wasn’t for…

Thread 🧵 from a junior barrister in a defence-only set:

“We have given all we have to give, and it is insulting to hear the government spew lies & misinformation about something that we live & breathe every day. No other profession would stand for this for this long… ..They have dried up the goodwill for too long. We give it our all, for every case. To just list the personal commitments we have given up, only to see the disheartened faces of our loved ones, to hear the hidden disappointment in their voices…

INSIDE THE MOJ

Raab: we will threaten to replace barristers

Civil Servant: who is as qualified & specialist?

Raab: um solicitors

CS: aren’t they angry + threatening us too?

Raab: LEGAL EXECS THEN

CS: they work with solicitors

Raab: BRIEF IT TO THE PRESS ANYWAY I DON’T CARE LATER ON

RAAB: NIGEL WHAT ARE THE MEDIA SAYING

Civil Servant: they are asking why you haven’t met the barristers even once to find out the problem

RAAB: THIS IS A WAR. I MUST BEAT THEM

Nigel: what do I tell the press?

RAAB: TELL THEM THE BARRISTERS SHOULD GO BACK TO WORK

Maryam, 16, wrote:

“I wanted to become president of my country, not for position, wealth, or fame but to build my country and make Kabul as beautiful as Paris. But now I can’t even go to school.”

https://twitter.com/christinalamb/status/1556329771902144513

She added:

“Maybe you think somehow Afghan girls can live without dreams but among us are girls who want to be doctors, engineers, an astronaut ...

and for the last 20 years that your soldiers were here in our country you have encouraged us to think that we could be.”

I want to explain why Criminal barristers are striking.

Imagine you work in an office and the pay is poor, but the work is FANTASTIC, necessary work and your colleagues are great. The bosses vary depending on the day, some are awful, some brilliant. The carpet is stained and worn through to underlay in places, in the corner the walls are mouldy. It smells weird.

Your desk has thank you cards on it from grateful clients whose lives you have changed forever.

Morale is sustained by black humour and good results for clients.