Despite the public outcry over a decision to release a “high risk” sex offender this summer, there has been no political oversight as the Law Officers slowly review a decades-old law that could have prevented it from happening.
The Home Affairs’ President, whose committee oversees criminal justice, has admitted he didn’t know about the review until another deputy asked him about it last week after Express published an article highlighting the matter.
Deputy Marc Leadbeater’s admission prompted another Deputy to suggest there is a “chasm” between the information politicians and civil servants had.
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 or be sentenced on criminal charges.
Judge Catherine Fooks has made two written references to the “urgent need to reform the law” in the last two years after two separate sex offenders were released into the community.
Deputy Tom Rylatt asked Home Affairs what progress has been made to reform the law that could have seen them treated differently.
Home Affairs President Deputy Marc Leadbeater said: “I can assure the Assembly that work is already underway within the Law Officers’ Chambers to review this law.
“However, this work is having to be balanced alongside other competing priorities.”
He said the issues raised in the judgments were “legally and operationally complex”, and the work “engages multiple stakeholders with different interests, which will need to be consulted on need to be consulted on the relevant proposals”.
“As such, it is not possible to say at present when proposals will be put before the States, but the Committee would intend that to happen during the course of 2027,” he added.
Deputy Leadbeater also admitted he didn’t know anything about the review until Deputy Rylatt posed his question last week.
That was despite the senior Judge putting her concerns about the law in writing in 2024, and again earlier this year.
The Law Officers had told Judge Fooks that they were working on reforming the law, but Deputy Gavin St Pier asked why it didn’t appear on a list of priority legislation.
“I was unaware of this,” admitted Deputy Leadbeater, adding that it was “a piece of work that’s being undertaken by the Law Officers’ Chambers”.
“It’s not something that’s being undertaken by the Committee for Home Affairs, and as I said previously, I had no knowledge there were concerns in this area until I opened the email and read the Rule 11 questions from Deputy Rylatt.”
Deputy Neil Inder then suggested there was a “chasm” between what goes on at the Law Officers’ Chambers and what the Home Affairs political committee knows about. He asked if in future the Law Officers should keep Home Affairs updated on such matters.
HM Procureur – who is the most senior legal advisor to the States – nodded as Deputy Leadbeater said that her staff and his staff will have spoken on this topic, but it was not yet a political issue, he insisted.
“This is something that doesn’t need any political engagement at this point, as far as I’m aware, so the work will be undertaken by the Law Officers in consultation with officers from the Committee, and when they’re at a time when a paper can be prepared to bring to the Committee, that’s when the political members will be engaged.”
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 or be sentenced on criminal charges.
It was cited in a high-profile murder case in 2001, when lawyers representing Derek Harvey asked the Royal Court to consider whether he could be found not guilty of the murders of his partner and their young daughter by reason of insanity through 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.
At the time of writing Harvey is understood to still be in prison.
The 1961 Law was put under the spotlight this summer when sex offender William King was released into the community to continue his rehabilitation.
He had been detained at the Oberlands under the 1961 Law after he was found unfit to enter a plea to allegations of sexually assaulting a woman in his car.
The Royal Court found he had sexually assaulted his victim and he was detained at the island’s mental health facility for 18 months while undergoing sex offender treatment.
His advocate, Peter Ferbrache, argued that he did not need to be detained at the Oberlands any longer – despite being considered at a “high risk” of reoffending – and the Ordinary Court agreed he could be released this summer.
In her written judgment on the case, Judge Catherine Fooks wrote that “the 1961 Law is not fit for purpose” and a “modern Law with the appropriate range of disposal options is long overdue”.
This was the second time that Judge Fooks has raised concerns about the Law in writing – having said in 2024 that “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.
Judge Fooks wrote then that “the Law Officers are fully aware that urgent reform of the Law is needed in this area and I have been assured that work is under way to achieve that”.
The Express article highlighting the judge’s call to urgently reform the law prompted some members of the public to agree – commenting on Facebook that it was long overdue.
Previous articles around the King case specifically have seen readers raise concerns about the safety of women and girls.
Express asked Judge Fooks to comment on her calls for the 1961 Law to be updated – but she declined to comment, saying it would be “inappropriate” to do so.
