Law Change so Offenders Can Be Forced to Attend Sentencing

Secretary of State for Justice Alex Chalk leaving Number 10 Downing Street, London, on June 13, 2023. (Aaron Chown/PA)

Justice Secretary Alex Chalk has vowed to change the law “at the earliest opportunity” to ensure offenders are required to attend their sentencing hearings.

Mr. Chalk took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to make a statement, after Lucy Letby, a 33-year-old nurse, was convicted of the murders of seven infants and the attempted murder of another six.

Letby worked on a special unit for premature babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital in the north of England in 2015 and 2016, when the deaths had occurred.

During the sentencing hearing on August 8, which she refused to attend, Letby was given a whole-life order.

“Lucy Letby is not just a murderer but a coward, whose failure to face her victims’ families–refusing to hear their impact statements and society’s condemnation-is the final insult. We are looking to change the law so offenders can be compelled to attend sentencing hearings,” Mr. Chalk wrote on X.

Under the current law, offenders cannot be forced to attend their sentence hearing. Responding to a petition to introduce new laws, which will force offenders to appear in court for sentencing, the government said it was “carefully considering how best to address this issue.”

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The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said that while in most cases courts can ensure that offenders are present during the sentencing, it remained a delicate issue, given the impact it may have on the victims.

“While in many cases it would clearly give victims closure to have the offender present, we realise that there may be cases where an offender is likely to be disruptive in court, or where ensuring their attendance would cause delays. In these cases, the offender’s presence may be distressing to victims and their families,” the MoJ said.

The petition, which has gathered more than 36 thousand signatures, argued that families of victims are “deprived the opportunity to gain full closure” because offenders have the choice to refuse to attend their sentencing.

Get On With It

The MoJ is set to bring forward legislation on the issue of non-attendance as soon as possible, the government confirmed.

The statement follows the commitment by Rishi Sunak during the Tory leadership campaign in July 2022 to make offenders spend longer in prison for non-attendance. The prime minister’s former justice secretary Dominic Raab said earlier this year, that new legislation will be rolled out as soon as parliamentary time allows.

The Labour Party has called on the Conservatives to act on their promises and deliver the change in legislation. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said that had the Tories acted when Labour demanded to change the law last April, Letby would have been in court for her sentencing.

“On behalf of victims and their families, the government must stop talking and get on with it,” Sir Keir wrote on X.

Shadow justice secretary Steve Reed responded to Mr. Chalk, recalling that his predecessor, Mr. Raab, has agreed to change the law “but did nothing.”

The statements on both sides of the political arena, come following a number of cases where serious offenders refused to be in court during sentencing.

In 2022, Jordan McSweeney was convicted of murdering and sexually assaulting law graduate Zara Aleena in Ilford and received a life imprisonment sentence. The Old Bailey heard that McSweeney refused to attend his sentencing because he did not want to watch CCTV of what he did.

Another serious offender, who refused to be present at his sentencing hearing, was Koci Selamaj.

Selamaj, who murdered the 28-year-old primary school teacher Sabina Nessa in September 2021, was sentenced to life imprisonment. The court heard that Selamaj did not agree to attend court or to attend from prison via video link.

“However cowardly those refusals may be, I have no power to force him to attend,” the judge said in the sentencing remarks (pdf).

Sir Keir said that if the government comes forward with a formal proposal to change the law, Labour will support it.