The decision to release a sex offender into the community has highlighted the urgent need for a 1961 law to be updated, warned one of Guernsey’s judges.
The written judgment relating to the William King case has been published – and Judge Catherine Fooks added a postscript making her feelings clear on the matter.
Express has also discovered that this is the second time Judge Fooks has called for this particular law to be updated.
The 1961 law
‘The Criminal Justice (Special Verdicts) (Guernsey) Law, 1961’ governs how the island’s courts deal with people who are found unfit to enter a plea on criminal charges.
Where an individual is found to be unfit to enter a plea, the courts can order that the individual is detained at His Majesty’s Pleasure in an approved establishment.
In Guernsey this could be the Oberlands or another part of the Princess Elizabeth Hospital as an alternative to the prison.
The detention can be for a determined or indeterminate length of time.
The King case
King has been living in the community since this summer, after successfully applying to be allowed to leave the Oberlands mental health facility where he had been held since January 2025 after Guernsey’s Royal Court decided he was unfit to stand trial and to serve time in prison.
Despite being unfit to stand trial, King was found to have sexually assaulted and falsely imprisoned a woman, and was ordered to be detained indefinitely under the Criminal Justice (Special Verdicts) (Guernsey) Law, 1961.
Having been held at the Oberlands for just a year, King appealed through the Ordinary Court for the detention order to be lifted, arguing that it would enable him to enter the next phase of his sex offender treatment programme, which involves “interacting with the community”.
During the court hearings held this spring and summer, Judge Fooks acknowledged that King could not stay on Crevichon ward indefinitely, with three Jurats eventually agreeing to a plan for his release into the community.
Despite King being classified as at a “high risk” of reoffending by a Senior Probation Officer, and a “medium risk” of reoffending by a doctor who has treated him at the Oberlands, he was released to his mother’s custody in stages, starting mid-August.
The Ordinary Court also heard that King had breached his existing Sexual Offences Prevention Order while being held at the hospital, but the 1961 Law was written in such a way that the Jurats could not deny King his liberty.
“I wish to highlight again the need to update the legislation,” wrote Judge Fooks in her final judgment on the case.
“The 1961 Law is not fit for purpose and a modern Law with the appropriate range of disposal options is long overdue.
“I should add to that, that I understand that this is in hand. I have had some communications about it,” she added.
When the Ordinary Court backed ‘discharge plan’ was activated, King spent an increasing amount of time in the community over a period of four weeks.
After that point he moved to a court-approved address full time.
The Court said this could only happen if King received ongoing support and monitoring from staff at the Oberlands, the probation service, and Guernsey Police during the four-week plan and for at least a couple of years after that.
A new Sexual Offences Prevention Order was also put in place, with a nightly curfew and clear directions that King can understand, outlining where he can and can’t go and what he should and shouldn’t be doing. This includes not being allowed to travel in a car with any woman other than his mother.
The plan can be stopped – and King returned to the Oberlands – if he doesn’t follow the rules that will be set.
The 1961 Law is not fit for purpose and a modern Law with the appropriate range of disposal options is long overdue
judge catherine fooks
Previous cases
Express has found evidence of at least two other serious cases being dealt with via the 1961 Law, including one where Judge Fooks said “urgent reform of the law is needed”.
In that case the court decided that a ‘young person’ who was unfit to stand trial had downloaded 234 indecent images of children, taken four, and distributed two of them.
The young person was made subject to a Supervision Order with Notification and MAPPA processes in place to assist them and to protect the public.
In 2024 the orders were discharged after it was determined that holding the young person at the Oberlands “would not be an appropriate order” under human rights laws.
The trial of a man found guilty of murdering a woman and a child also considered the 1961 Law.
Derek Harvey killed his partner and their daughter at their home in St Peter Port while under the influence of drugs.
Ultimately the court found that Harvey was fit to stand trial and he was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison in 2001.
At the time of writing Harvey is understood to still be in prison.
