The Justice Gap Podcast

Last month the Court of Appeal quashed the convictions of the so called Stansted 15. In handing down its judgment, the Lord Chief Justice said 'there was, in truth no case to answer'. The group were convicted in late 2018 under legislation intended for terror related incidents. They're crime? A peaceful protest against the 'brutal' practice of chartered deportations laid on by the Home Office. The excessive charges were authorised by the Attorney General, not questioned by the trial judge and the result was four years of torment for the group of activists. In this episode of The Justice Gap Podcast, we're joined by Emma Hughes, a member of the Stansted 15, and the group's lawyer Raj Chada. We discuss the protest itself, the importance of protecting the right to peaceful dissent, the appeal and much more... 

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The Truth About Modern Slavery, by Emily Kenway argues that the framing around modern slavery has been used as an emotive political tool to conceal the damage done by policies moves such the hostile environment. In this episode of The Justice Gap Podcast, Emily spoke to Jon Robins about that and how the political tool, as she puts it, legitimises big brands' exploitation of the poorest workers and oppressing sex workers. The book provides a vital and timely discussion and you can pick it up from Pluto Books if you want to learn more.

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In the week where the Court of Appeal reconsiders the case of the Shrewsbury 24, one of the men convicted and imprisoned back in 1973 speaks to The Justice Gap Podcast. Ricky Tomlinson is probably best known as the idle, but loveable patriarch, Jim Royle, from TV’s the Royle family or as Brookside’s Bobby Grant. But you may not have known that he started his career as a construction worker and played an active role in the first and only ever national construction strikes. Ricky’s involvement in that industrial action landed him a conviction, alongside 23 others, based on ‘lies and fabrication’. In 2017, the miscarriage of justice watchdog, the CCRC refused to refer an application from the Shrewsbury 24 back to the Court of Appeal. A judicial review successfully followed and they finally referred the case in what the chairman of the CCRC, Helen pitcher, described as 'not our finest hour’. Ricky and Calum McCrae discuss the state of the construction industry back in the 70's, the strike itself and the 'political' charges and trials that followed. 

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In the early morning of September the 28th, 1985, armed police raided 22 Normandy Road in Brixton. The lead detective Douglas Lovelock had been drinking the night before, they entered with a false sense of danger and the inevitable happened. As Cherry Groce rose from bed to see what was happening, she was shot, leaving her paralysed for the rest of her life and sparking the Brixton uprising of 1985. In this episode of The Justice Gap Podcast Lee Lawrence, the author of the award winning memoir 'The Louder I will Sing' and Cherry Groce’s son, speaks to Calum McCrae about that night, the aftermath and the 'David and Goliath' struggle to finally have the truth heard and recognised. 

Imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentences have been described as a 'stain' on the criminal justice system. Those were the words of Ken Clarke. The architect of the scheme, David Blunkett expressed regret for the injustices caused by them. So why are there still over 2000 prisoners serving time on these sentences? And why is the despair they cause still not properly acknowledged in the face of such clear evidence? In this episode, Jon Robins speaks to Deborah Coles, executive director of Inquest, and Donna Mooney about her fight for change and acknowledgment after her brother Tommy Nicol committed suicide whilst serving an IPP sentence in 2015. 

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In this episode you’ll hear from the indefatigable and charismatic human rights lawyer Michael Mansfield QC. Called to the bar in 1967, Mansfield quickly built a reputation for standing up for the voiceless. He’s represented victims of tragedies and atrocities, from Hillsborough to the Stephen Lawrence inquiry. Michael has worked to free many of the UK’s most notable victims of wrongful convictions, such as the Birmingham 6, the Cardiff 3 and Judith Ward to name a few. He became seen as such a fierce anti-establishment threat, that he too was the focus of unwarranted police surveillance. We touch briefly on his involvement as a core participant in the ongoing spycops inquiry in this slightly more free flowing conversation than the previous episodes. We also cover Grenfell, and the inquiry flowing from the disaster in which Michael is currently engaged. You’ll hear about the current issues within the criminal law that trouble him in relation to miscarriages of justice. But the conversation started with Michael’s take on what this tumultuous year in health and politics means for justice as a whole. 

Dave Smith's path into the construction industry was clear; all of his male relatives had followed the same one. Once ensconced within the industry, he became a union rep, and then the work dried up ‘in the middle of a building boom’. He’d been the victim of an illegal practice known as blacklisting. In the second episode of The Justice Gap Podcast, Dave Smith tells Calum McCrae that, though this was devastating, it wasn’t unexpected. Finding out that undercover police were colluding with the blacklisting, definitely was. 

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