June has been a hugely successful month for Cornwall Street, with three of our exceptional advocates securing wins at the Court of Appeal on various matters across Family and Crime.

Dorothy Seddon

Re: T (A Child) [2018] EWCA Civ 650 

This Court of Appeal case involved the welfare decision in relation to an 18 month old boy as to whether there could be a family placement with his paternal grandmother, represented by Dorothy Seddon, as both parents had accepted they were incapable of taking care of him; or if he should be put up for adoption.

During the initial trial various concerns were raised by the local authority as to the suitability of the grandmother as the child’s primary carer. At first instance a Placement Order was made on the basis of the local authority’s unchanged position despite the judge’s initial findings of risk and welfare. Dorothy was successful in arguing that it was a question for the Court whether or not the child should be placed in the care of his grandmother, and that the careful balancing of the facts had not been conducted after the case had been heard by the Permanence Panel. Ultimately there had been a failure to insist that judicial assessment be due-diligently considered, and therefore the appeal was allowed.

Read the full judgment here.

Oliver Woolhouse

 Oliver represented a young man charged with 4 offences at the Criminal Court of Appeal having initially received a total sentence of 43 months when he appeared at Wolverhampton Crown Court as follows:

Section 16(a) Firearms Act offence – possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence: 36 months.

Theft: 4 months.

Escape in custody: 3 months.

Assault of a Police Constable: 1 month.

The one month for the assault of a police constable offence was concurrent to the 3 months of the escape in custody, but otherwise all sentences were consecutive.

The appeal was against the length of the 36 months for the firearms offence.

The Court of Appeal accepted Oliver’s submissions, and agreed that the sentence for the firearms offence was too long. 36 months was reduced to 29 months detention, resulting in a total sentence of 36 months (since the consecutive term of 7 months for the theft and escape remained the same).

David Swinnerton

On 19th June 2018, David appeared at the Court of Appeal Criminal Division on a renewed application for leave to appeal on behalf of Scott Dobson, leave to appeal having been refused initially. The court gave leave and allowed the appeal against a finding of dangerousness made against Mr Dobson for an offence of robbery.

David also appeared before the Court of Appeal on the 25th April 2018 representing Brian Andrew in a successful appeal against a restraining order made on acquittal.