By Melanie Newman17 May 2021 Janet Skinner was 35 and a divorced mother of two teenage children in 2007 when she was accused of stealing almost £60,000 from the busy post office she ran on a council estate in Hull. Last month she was one of 39 former postmasters cleared of similar offences after it emerged the Post Office had failed to disclose that a defective computer system installed at their branches was generating ‘phantom’ transactions. Initially charged with theft, Skinner pleaded guilty to false accounting despite knowing she had not taken the money. Her lawyer had advised this as her best hope of avoiding a custodial sentence.
By Melanie Newman17 May 2021 Janet Skinner was 35 and a divorced mother of two teenage children in 2007 when she was accused of stealing almost £60,000 from the busy post office she ran on a council estate in Hull. Last month she was one of 39 former postmasters cleared of similar offences after it emerged the Post Office had failed to disclose that a defective computer system installed at their branches was generating ‘phantom’ transactions. Initially charged with theft, Skinner pleaded guilty to false accounting despite knowing she had not taken the money. Her lawyer had advised this as her best hope of avoiding a custodial sentence.
The low down The ‘can do’ attitude lawyers and the justice system assumed when Covid-19 struck has seen the overnight arrival of technologies that have been talked about for years. The criminal justice system has experienced a dramatic increase in the use of remote hearings and solicitors attending police station interviews virtually. While it is unlikely that things will go back to how they were in 2019, decades of underspending on criminal justice is leaving defence lawyers fearful that cost and convenience and not the interests of clients will determine which changes are permanent. Not least, the ability for a defence lawyer to read the room – an important factor in criminal proceedings – could be lost.
Gerald Baxter, prosecuting A court heard Punja has previously sexually assaulted a woman on a train and lay on a shop floor to look up a woman s skirt. He was jailed today for five years, with an extended two years on licence, after a judge at Liverpool Crown Court called his attack frightening and quite outrageous . Sentencing the sex fiend, Recorder Tom Gilbart said: You appeared and took hold of her with both of your hands. You moved the victim against her will across the street. You moved in the direction of a smaller darker street of passageway which was away from the main thoroughfare.
Woman kidnapped on Liverpool city centre street by sex attacker Dhanji Punja, 42, was today jailed for five years, with an extended two years on licence, for the terrifying attack Updated Dhanji Punja, 42, of Stanley Street, Liverpool city centre Get the inside track on the big stories from Liverpool Crown Court with our weekly newsletterInvalid EmailSomething went wrong, please try again later. Subscribe now When you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these newsletters. Your information will be used in accordance with ourPrivacy Notice. Thank you for subscribingWe have more newslettersShow meSee ourprivacy notice A danger to women dragged his victim from a city centre street and towards a secluded alley so he could sexually assault her.