Let magistrates deal with more assault cases, says law reform body

Magistrates courts should be empowered to deal with thousands more assault charges every year rather than sending too many cases for expensive trial in the crown court, the Law Commission has said.

In a report calling for replacement of the “outdated” 1861 Offences Against the Person Act, the law reform body proposes creating a new “aggravated assault” crime to cover the gap between common assault and the more serious actual bodily harm (ABH).

Threats of rape or of causing serious injury, the commission suggests, should also become crimes in the same way that threats to kill are already illegal.

There are more than 26,000 prosecutions each year under the Offences Against the Person Act and about a further 100,000 for assault, the report says, “but the act is notoriously difficult to understand and use”.

Its language is “archaic and obscure”, the commission says. The act refers to concepts no longer recognised in law such as “felony”, and includes obsolete offences such as “impeding an escape from a shipwreck”.

The act covers numerous other offences, including those known as ABH (assault occasioning actual bodily harm) and GBH (grievous bodily harm), but they are not coherently classified in order of seriousness.

The commission is recommending modernising the legislation based substantially on a 1998 bill drafted during an earlier Home Office attempt at reform. The bill clarified the hierarchy of offences and introduced a requirement that the defendant must have foreseen the level of harm caused.

The new aggravated assault charge would carry a maximum sentence of 12 months and be triable only in magistrates courts, the Law Commission report proposes. “It would allow prosecutors to divert low-level injury cases from the more expensive crown court to the magistrates court, in line with the proposed increase in magistrates’ sentencing powers from six to 12 months introduced by the Criminal Justice Act 2003.”

More than 70% of ABH cases dealt with by crown courts receive sentences of 12 months or less. One problem the proposals will face is the government’s apparent reluctance to bring into effect the legislative change giving magistrates the power to sentence offenders for up to 12 months for a single offence.

Launching the report at Bangor University, Prof David Ormerod QC, law commissioner for criminal law and evidence, said: “Violent behaviour results in up to 200,000 prosecutions each year but the law under which violent offences are prosecuted is out of date and confusing for the courts, defendants and victims.

“If implemented, our recommended reforms will produce a clear, modern statutory code to deal with offences of violence. A logical hierarchy of clearly defined offences will allow prosecutors to make more appropriate and efficient use of valuable court time.”

Commenting on the report, Richard Monkhouse, the national chairman of the Magistrates Association in England and Wales, said: “We welcome this recommendation as we have been calling for extended jurisdiction to hear cases carrying 12-month sentences for some time now because it makes sense, and it will save money by speeding up the system, especially for victims who sorely need speedier justice.

“Magistrates are trained, ready and able to handle cases with longer sentences – we see this as an opportunity for the government to trust our members to do the job they signed up for.”