Sir, With reference to the consternation of the police and the Home Secretary by the ruling in the Paul Hookway case (“Police chaos after High Court bail ruling”, June 30), there is an alternative to an appeal to the Supreme Court (slow) and emergency legislation (legislate in haste, repent at leisure). Hookway was a decision of a single judge sitting in the High Court. The police should engineer a re-run of the same situation, only this time they should ensure that their application for judicial review is heard by a Divisional Court (by definition a court of at least two judges), which would not be bound by the Hookway decision. This could all be expedited.
Quite apart from the merits, the case highlights the scandal of criminal cases being heard by single judges in the High Court. I maintain that this practice is unlawful. Thus far, the authorities have turned a convenient deaf ear to the argument. Now that they have found themselves so spectacularly on the wrong end of a ruling by a single judge, perhaps they will now sit up and take notice.
James Richardson, Qc
Editor, Criminal Law Week