Youth Justice Legal Centre (YJLC) have released a training video which features legal experts, including Sarah Hemingway of Garden Court Chambers, to explain how to use safeguarding and welfare law to better defend children in the criminal legal system. The video also features Aika Stephenson, founder of Just for Kids Law and Mel Stooks of GT Stewart Solicitors.
The video refers to the cases of Child Q, a girl who was strip searched by the police at school, as well as ST v The Chief Constable of Nottinghamshire Police [2022] EWHC 1280 (QB).
In ST v CCNP, ST was a 14-year-old-boy who was arrested at 5.30am on suspicion of robbery and was detained for six hours. The High Court ultimately found that he should never have been arrested and that his detention was unlawful. The judgment highlighted the need for police to consider the age of the person arrested, the international principle of the Best Interests of the Child, and the timing of any arrest. Sarah Hemingway of Garden Court Chambers acted for the claimant, instructed by Gregsons Solicitors of Nottingham. Read more about the case here.
In the video, Sarah states:
“So the NPCC child-centred policing strategy uses the term ‘child’ and that’s how police should view the young people that they are arresting…
One of the things I think criminal lawyers can do at the police station is query why [the child] is being held in a cell for so long, particularly where they’re not posing any real threat to the officers at the station. [ST] wasn’t charged, so the trauma he went through didn’t amount to a criminal conviction…”
…Before somebody’s liberty is taken away and then detained in a police cell…the custody sergeant is duty bound to make the independent assessment. As the High Court said, there were no reasonable grounds to believe it was necessary to place a distressed boy in that police cell.”
YJLC are the centre of excellence in youth justice law in England & Wales. YJLC share knowledge, convene expertise and circulate innovation in order to support a community of youth justice practitioners fight for better outcomes for children.
