Charity launches judicial review bid over ‘unlawful' child detention
Neil Puffett
Friday, September 2, 2016
A charity is launching a bid to challenge the legality of a series of decisions that led to a 15-year-old looked-after child being detained in police custody for the non-payment of fines.
The Howard League for Penal Reform said the "vulnerable" child was detained for two nights after police were called to the children's home where he was staying to reports of him "acting aggressively" and, after checking the police national computer, saw that he was subject to an outstanding arrest warrant for the non-payment of £129 in previous fines.
The charity is now seeking permission to judicially review the decisions and processes that led to the 15-year-old boy being detained.
It argues that a court does not have the power to order the arrest of a child for non-payment because is recognised that children do not have the means to pay fines.
In addition it says that magistrates have no legal power to jail a child for not paying fines.
Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: "This is the second time in only a few weeks that we have had to take action on behalf of children who have been unlawfully detained following warrants for non-payment of fines issued by magistrates' courts.
"It is disappointing that a charity has to act on behalf of these children when the law is clear that there is no power to issue such warrants. We know that locking up children in police stations overnight is frightening and damaging, and it wastes police time.
"Something is going terribly wrong when judicial processes lead to children being locked up for not paying fines that they have no means to pay. Urgent action is required to ensure this does not happen again."
