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Letter published in
The Times, 7 July 2010 |
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Complete transcipt as follows: |
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Children and court |
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Last updated July 7 2010 12:01AM |
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The age of criminal responsibility should be raised substantially
in line with most other countries |
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Sir, We are concerned about the very low age of criminal
responsibility, ten years old, for children in England and
Wales. The assumption that a ten-year-old can face charges
is widely discussed in terms of whether or not that child
can “understand the difference between right and wrong”. The
question is more complicated — most ten-year-olds can understand
that difference. The test should go beyond this and should
decide whether the defendant’s intellectual capacity is such
that he could not effectively participate in the proceedings
and accordingly have a fair trial. |
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We believe that the age of criminal responsibility should
be raised substantially in line with most other countries
and propose a consultation process, led by the Law Commission,
to explore how this could be rectified. |
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Dr
Eileen Vizard
Child and adolescent psychiatrist
Professor Dinesh Bhugra
President, Royal College of Psychiatrists
Prof Sarah-Jayne Blakemore
UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience
Juliet Lyon
Director, Prison Reform Trust
Paul Mendelle, QC
Chairman, Criminal Bar Association
Andrew Flanaghan
CEO, NSPCC
Lord Ramsbotham
House of Lords
Bob Reitemeier
Chief Executive, The Children’s Society
Mark Ashford
Solicitor, TV Edwards LLP
Camila Batmanghelidjh
Founder and Chief Executive, Kids Company
Dr Arnon Bentovim
The Child and Family Practice London and Visiting Professor
at the Department of Health and Social Care, Royal Holloway,
University of London
Professor Gwyneth Boswell
University of East Anglia
Michael Bowes, QC
Outer Temple Chambers
Frances Crook
Director, Howard League for Penal Reform
Baroness Deech
Chair, Bar Standards Board
Professor Peter Fonagy
Head of Department of Clinical & Health Psychology, UCL
and CEO of Anna Freud Centre
Dr Danya Glaser
Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Great Ormond Street
Hospital
Professor Simon Hackett
Head of the School of Applied Social Sciences, Durham University
Laura Hoyano
Fellow & Tutor in Law, Wadham College, University of Oxford
Professor Michael Lamb
Professor of Psychology and head of the Department of Social
and Developmental Psychology, University of Cambridge
Shauneen Lambe
Youth Department, Just for Kids Law
The Earl of Listowel
Vice-Chair, Associate Parliamentary Group for Children and Young
People in Care and Leaving Care and Treasurer, All Party Parliamentary
Group for Children
Dr Eamon McCrory
Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Senior Lecturer, Anna Freud
Centre and UCL
Margaret Murphy
Chair of the Child and Adolescent Faculty, Royal College of
Psychiatrists
Sally O’Neill, QC
Furnival Chambers
Dr Janet Parrott
Chair of the Forensic Faculty, Royal College of Psychiatrists
Joyce Plotnikoff
Researcher, Lexicon Limited
Richard White
Children Panel Solicitor
Peter Wilson
Clinical Advisor, The Place2Be
Barbara Esam, David Jeffries, Stephen Pizzey, Chris
Stanley and John Tenconi
Michael Sieff Foundation Trustees |
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Michael
Sieff Foundation Conference
1908
– 2008: The Children Act 100 Years On
Young Defendants Today
Tuesday, 28 April, 2009
Church House, Dean’s Yard, Westminster, London
For details about Foundation conferences please contact:
Richard White,
Secretary, Michael Sieff Foundation,
Phone: 07788 581930
Email: richard@michaelsieff-foundation.org.uk |
Background to the Conference |
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purpose of this high level conference was to address important issues
relating to children appearing before the criminal courts. Attendance
at the conference was by invitation only. Invitations were sent to
senior experienced professionals whom the organisers felt would be
able to address the shortcomings of our present system and come up
with sensible and achievable proposals for improvement. |
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conference functioned as a working forum in which specific recommendations
in relation to children and the criminal courts were made. The intention
is that these will be taken forward by the Michael Sieff Foundation
which organised the meeting. |
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was an informed debate on these topical issues and we are pleased
to publish this report of the conference proceedings. |
Conference Proceedings |
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on this page below are links to the PDFs of all the transcripts and
also copies of relevant reports included in conference delegate packs.
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| To
view the Report – Young Defendants Conference 28 April
2009 click
here. There are links within this report to the documents produced
during the conference. Alternatively you can follow the links below: |
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