James has highlighted his campaign on the need for defendants to attend court for sentencing hearings.
Several high profile cases have involved defendants who have not refused to appear at sentencing hearings. The Manchester Arena bomber, Hashem Abedi, did not attend his sentencing. More recently, Thomas Cashman who murdered Olivia Pratt-Korbel, refused to attend his sentencing to life imprisonment. Olivia’s mother described his lack of appearance as “a kick in the teeth”. Speaking at the court hearing of Sabrina Nessa's murder, her sister Jebina Islam, called the killer a "coward" for not facing up to his crime in court. In April 2023, Michael Appleby of Middleton refused to attend court when he was sentenced to 13 years for sexually assaulting a young girl.
In the wake of cases of such cases, James has highlighted the importance of defendants attend their sentencing hearings. Commenting James said:
“I was appalled by high profile cases where defendants refused to come to court. Family and friends of their victims spoke of how this was a further abuse of them.”
Defendants currently can refuse to attend sentencing hearings. By failing to attend those testifying and families of victims feel as though the defendant is attempting to take further control of the situation. Victims family members and friends have said it is ‘cowardly’ for the defendant not to turn up to their sentencing.
James takes this issue very seriously. In May 2022, he raised it at Justice Questions in Parliament with the then Minister agreeing to consider James’ proposal to make failure to attend an aggravating factor judges could consider in sentencing and impose a longer jail term as a result.
Following the reshuffle last summer, James wrote to the new Justice Minister setting out his proposal. In response, the Minister replied to say Government was considering carefully the case for change. After becoming Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak adopted the proposal in response to James’ and others suggestions whilst Justice Secretary, Dominic Raab, has publicly said the Government plans to legislate.
James said:
“It is important that justice is seen to be done. Defendant’s hiding in their cells are effectively abusing their victim and victim’s families again. Judges should be able to impose longer sentences where offenders refuse to face justice in open court. Recent cases underline the case for reform.”
