Part 5: Gangs: Pre-trial issues and Criminal Behaviour Orders

Part 5  Gangs: Pre-trial issues and Criminal Behaviour Orders

In the fifth part of our series our panel will look at how to respond when the prosecution opposes bail for the defendant’s "own protection". Our speakers will cover "for your protection" remands, Criminal Behaviour Orders (CBOs) and building expert evidence.
 

Event Series

The Black Lives Matter Movement has highlighted the racist nature of the legal system. The scales need to be rebalanced so there is no discrimination from the decision to stop and search to the jury’s verdict. The whole system needs to be representative of the community it serves. Maybe then justice will be done and seen to be done.

In many trials the State’s starting point and narrative is racist. Groups of Black youths who have a connection to Drill music, despite their good character and positive aspirations, are wrongly assumed to be members of violent criminal gangs overnight. Police officer ‘experts’ provide evidence of association in parks and ‘on the road’,  they ‘translate’ Drill lyrics, so called gang signs and then pronounce on turf and territories. There is often an imbalance when the defence respond. Legal arguments fail to exclude irrelevant or prejudicial material. Defence experts are rarely called.  During the summing up, all too often,  the prosecution stereotypes remain unchallenged.

The consequences are often devastating with swathes of Black youth being convicted on the back of superficially persuasive gang narratives despite never holding a weapon, being involved in any assault or being part of a gang. The devastation continues with the lurid headlines that accompany the convictions and the vicious circle starts again.

But the State doesn’t stop there. The police continue to use stop and search in a discriminatory and arbitrary manner; they employ the so called gang matrix to criminally categorise and to keep Black youth under surveillance and they ban Drill artists from performing their music, threatening to lock them up if they don’t obey. All of this on the back of centuries of oppression.

In an attempt to rebalance the scales in the legal arena, the Garden Court Chambers Criminal Defence Team is running a series of webinars that examine the State’s criminalisation of Black youth through racist stereotypes of gangs and Drill music. During this journey we will be acknowledging and celebrating the expertise of Black lawyers, Black artists and Black professionals. We are ambitious and hope that one day something along these lines will be used during the training of judges and lawyers.
 

Speakers, 5pm, Tuesday 6 October 2020 

Russell Fraser, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers 
Russell is a criminal defence specialist with experience defending in a range of cases including serious violence, fraud, and drug supply. He is particularly interested in public order, protest, and terrorism. He has also represented clients in the parole board and prison adjudications as well as before the mental health tribunal.

Audrey Cherryl Mogan, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers 
Audrey Cherryl Mogan is a specialist criminal defence and public law barrister with experience in defending individuals charged with serious violence, the supply and production of drugs and firearms offences. She has particular expertise in cases involving victims of trafficking and representing vulnerable children and young people.

Audrey has in-depth knowledge of European and international human rights law gained through ten years in the NGO sector, and is a committee member of Young Legal Aid Lawyers and Board member of the Black Protest Legal Support group which was formed in the wake of the ‘Black Lives Matter’ (‘BLM’) movement. Audrey has successfully run a campaign to challenge the nationality requirement in criminal courts, and was recently appointed as a Griffins-Barrow Cadbury Trust Fellow, in joint partnership with Cambridge University, where she will be undertaking research on trafficking and modern day slavery.

Shina Animashaun, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers 
Shina has successfully defended vulnerable youths and adults charged with a range of offences including serious violence, supply or producing drugs, and theft. He has represented members of high-profile music collectives, and solo artist accused of being part of gangs. Shina has experience challenging the imposition of Criminal Behaviour Orders and similar injunctions. Shina recently spoke at a panel, ‘Know Your Rights – Stop and Search”, which reach capacity at 500 attendees, advising parents and community workers. He is well known and highly regarded for his approach with clients; he has experience beyond his years of call when working with both vulnerable adults and children. 

Dr. Martyn Glynn, Lecturer in Criminology, Birmingham University 
Dr Martin Glynn is a criminologist and Winston Churchill Fellow with over 35 years’ experience of working in criminal justice, public health, and educational settings.  Dr Glynn is currently a lecturer in criminology at Birmingham City University and is the writer in residence at the National Justice Museum.

Dr Glynn has written many books, amongst these are 'Black Men, Invisibility, and Desistance from crime: Towards a Critical Race Theory from Crime’, published by Routledge in December 2014 and his most recent book ‘Speaking Data and Telling Stories: Data Verbalization for Researchers', published by Routledge in 2019. He has two further books in the pipeline, ‘Breaking Free: Black art and the Criminological imagination’, Policy Press (2021) and ‘Shadow Voices, the  Black presence in crime and punishment in the UK, 1750-1900’ (Routledge, 2023)

Susan Wright, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers (Chair)
Susan Wright is a crime and human rights barrister whose career has included representing one of the first accused at the war crimes tribunal in Sierra Leone as well as the first accused in the United States facing the death penalty after a cold hit DNA match. In addition to serious crime, Susan is experienced at dealing with clients requiring additional support, including youths and those with mental health difficulties.

She acts for clients detained in high security, other forensic services and general psychiatric unites and helps young people (under 18 years) detained under the Mental Health Act. With knowledge of all aspects of mental health and criminal law, she is skilled in deadline with medical experts and clinically complex areas of law. This enables her to provide expert advice on sentencing, hospital orders, diversion, fitness to plead, diminished responsibility, insanity, drug induced psychosis and automatism. She represents youth charged with serious offences and is particularly skilled at taking judges through the complex sentencing guidelines and authorities, highlighting alternative sentences wherever possible.

Recording

 

Event Series (further details to be announced)

Part 1: Understanding Drill – artist and expert testimony
5pm-6.30pm, Tuesday 8 September

Part 2: Challenging the admissibility of Drill music in criminal trials
5pm-6.30pm, Tuesday 15 September 

Part 3: Drill music injunctions and Ancillary Orders
5pm-6.30pm, Tuesday 22 September 2020

Part 4 - Debunking prosecution myths: “Gang” stereotypes, joint enterprise & racist driven stop & searches
5pm-6.30pm, 29 September 2020

Part 5 - Gangs: Pre-trial issues and Criminal Behaviour Orders
5pm-6.30pm, 6 October 2020

Part 6 - Gangs: how to exclude so called gang evidence in criminal trials and challenging the Joint Enterprise narrative
5pm-6.30pm, 13 October 2020

Book your place below to receive joining details for the whole event series. If you had already signed up for Parts 1-4 in our series you do not need to re-register.