Lammy’s Vision for Juryless Trials - with artist and Lucy Letby portraitist Juliet Pleming

'Lucy Letby' by Juliet Pleming

A leaked internal Ministry of Justice (MoJ) memo has revealed that Justice Secretary David Lammy is proposing to significantly restrict the right to a jury trial in England and Wales to only the ‘most serious’ cases, such as murder, rape, and manslaughter. The memo reportedly states there is ‘no right’ to a jury trial in the UK.

The proposals are a shift from Lammy's 2017 review of the justice system, where he described juries as a "success story" and a vital protection against bias. The plans have faced significant criticism from the Criminal Bar Association, who argue they represent a fundamental change to the justice system.

Opening this door to juryless trials means opening the door to the VAWG (Violence Against Women and Girls) cartel in Westminster, ringled by Jess Phillips, Harriet Harman and their ilk. They will quickly argue that rape, whose definition has been massively expanded since 2003 due to their pressure, isn’t receiving enough convictions, and will campaign for ‘trauma informed’ single judges to sit instead (who will rule based on debunked ‘rape myths’ and so on).

While there is Two Tier Justice in many areas of the justice system as it is, this would legitimise a ‘straight to jail’ from allegation approach that will only further the ever-widening sex divide in society.

An Emily on Facebook wrote:

‘So rape is a purely political event is it? And nobody ever gets arrested, prosecuted or convicted for it, so let's not bother to be seen as trying because it's a waste of time? I think you need to drastically amend what you've written here or seriously question what you're thinking.’

Juliet Pleming - artist and Lucy Letby portraitist - responded:

‘It is a fact that the legal system is under massive pressure and the backlog is huge, so this has been suggested as a way of dealing with things, but we must be careful not to erode the workings of justice. The justice system has never been perfect and many get away with crimes due to lack of evidence. Also some people are falsely convicted by strongly emotive cases where evidence is twisted by experts and/or is circumstantial. Juries can be deceived or act on their own emotional biases. This is especially the case in murder and rape, which have maximum gravity. People want to believe in the justice system but it is imperfect by its nature. It is important to objectively examine any action taken under political pressure because this may erode its workings and give room for abuse and mistakes. If being proven guilty by actual evidence is important then there are some people who will go unpunished due to lack of evidence, but this is an important stance to hold to minimise the chances of people being convicted of crimes they haven't committed where there is emotive but inadequate evidence...As I replied to Emily, rape is political. It has become a political issue even more so in recent years where the police and justice system 'must' be seen to be 'trying harder'. 

The problematic thing is that in many cases by its very nature it is one person's word against another's. By the legal process we have, a person should be seen as innocent until proven guilty and this needs to be proved by evidence not just accusations. Through political pressure 'believe the victim' stance has become a major factor in decision-making and although this is intended to be kinder to women who have been raped, believing alleged victims is not actual proof of rape and, unfortunately, there are women who will abuse this by false accusations.

If a system is set up with such bias there is room for abuse. One of the main reasons that many alleged rapes do not get to court is simply because there isn't enough evidence. If juries are instructed to believe the alleged victim making an allegation of rape it increases the likelihood of miscarriages of justice. Of course, rape is a serious crime and therefore needs to be dealt with as such, but the legal stance of innocent until proven guilty is a cornerstone of our legal system. I know this is an emotive subject and this is even more reason for the law to be based on evidence and not swayed by political pressure.

False Allegations Watch editorial