Unlawful Killings: Life, Love and Murder: Trials at the Old Bailey - The instant Sunday Times bestseller

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For anyone who is interested in more detail of the law being applied, there are detailed appendices which you can consult for further reading but, if that’s not your bag, you don’t need to go into that much depth to understand the points being made. She immediately accepts that the sentences she was passing on countless young men, some of which were longer than the years they had been alive, was unlikely to rehabilitate them, deter anyone else, or ever be long enough for many families of victims: ‘Our law has not made up its mind what it wants to achieve. There should be nothing mysterious about the way the courts work, and nothing frightening – unless you happen to be guilty of a crime. The fracture lines that run through our society are becoming harder and harder to ignore; the author warns that we do so at our peril. Honest, sometimes a little shocking, often witty, but ultimately also undeniably tragic - it deals with the outline of half a dozen murder/attempted murder trials so could be little else - it really takes readers behind the scenes of the justice system in the UK, particularly those cases heard in the Old Bailey.

Unlawful Killings - Penguin Books UK Unlawful Killings - Penguin Books UK

We tend to think of judges as omnipotent but as Wendy Joseph QC explains that is far from the truth. The tone of this book is spot on, humour where appropriate, a deserved mockery of some of the aspects of trial by jury - and the Barristers are in for as much stick as some of the witnesses in this case - but with the serious and often heartbreaking moments acknowledged and reflected in the Judge's recounting of the case.In fact, when the book went out on submission, it attracted great interest and was pre-empted by Transworld in May last year, the acquisition announced as a book by a “judge writing anonymously” because serving judges are not allowed to have a personal profile or any other source of income. A superb work providing the reader with a truly authentic judicial insight into the human stories and legal and forensic framework that constitute today's criminal trials of those accused of unlawfully killing another human being. Christ Church was silent except for the footfall of unseen persons around corners and the sounds of evensong creeping from behind closed doors. He now presents the popular Radio 4 series Law in Action, which he launched in 1984 and appears regularly on other news networks in the UK and abroad.

Unlawful Killings by Her Honour Her Honour Wendy Joseph KC

And while most people have only the sketchiest idea of what happens inside a Crown Court, any one of us could end up in the witness-box or even in the dock. Until her retirement a few weeks ago, Joseph was a judge at the most famous criminal court in the UK. Wendy is acutely conscious of how lucky her generation was – university and Bar Finals fees paid by the local authority, and a maintenance grant all the way through – and the complete contrast with the current and more recent debt-laden generations. And the fact the mother got a lawyer who is well known for ripping witnesses apart nastily and she was okay with her younger daughter going through that. Her honourable Judge Wendy Joseph QC’s accounts of sitting at the old Bailey, told with intricate detail, sharp wit, kindness, humility not to mention a formidable upholder of British justice, each chapter is summarised at the end with an explanation of the defendants crime and how it sits within society, gang culture to murder, to male teachers abusing their positions, she breaks down the trials and delivers it all so eloquently you almost feel as if you are in the court room.Focusing on six dramatic murder and manslaughter cases she details the inner workings of British law, removing the distinction between ‘them’ and ‘us’. I genuinely found them all fascinating as well as gaining an insight to what actually happens during a jury trial.