Whether it is "legal" or not is an interesting legal point.
It would be illegal if it was a "court sentence" but British Magistrates have virtually unlimited powers to impose various temporary restraining orders and the like. These orders, in some cases, can be almost indefinitely extended and “temporary” can be a long time.
Of course they can be constantly appealed, but without legal aid, this is expensive and can take a long time. And in the mean time the order continues.
This is a weird situation, though. He's not having his right to have sex removed, he just has to alert the authorities in advance. As it happens, it'd probably take as long to have his appeal heard as the (4 month) enforcement of the order. Perhaps naively, I've always lived by the maxim 'if you've nothing to hide, you've nothing to fear'.
Richard Atkinson, who chairs the criminal law committee of the Law Society, is concerned about the orders.
"Of course, a great deal of stigma is attached to anyone who has such an order made and if the process of obtaining these orders is less than that is needed for a conviction then that's a very worrying departure from our normal standards."
Last edited by SteveB; 22-01-16 at 18:54.
We are only given limited information about this case, so without knowing the exact details of the rape of which he was cleared, it's impossible to form an a definitive opinion on whether or not, this is a step too far. These are orders are requested by the police, they must have put forward their concerns to have this order issued in December. I, suspect that, the police may be doing further investigations whilst this order is in place.
Sandy x
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Please do what you can for her daughter. Deeply appreciated.
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