Skip to main content

Proceeding contribution from Earl of Onslow (Conservative) in the House of Lords on Wednesday, 5 March 2008. It occurred during Committee of the Whole House (HL) and Debate on bill on Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill.


Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

I should like to make a brief point, which backs entirely what the noble and learned Lord has just said. Recently a shopkeeper killed his assailant with a knife. The police said that the gentleman would not be prosecuted because he had acted reasonably under the circumstances. Those circumstances were completely different from those in the Martin case. If I remember rightly, the chap was running down the stairs in front of Martin. However much you might sympathise with Martin’s predicament—it was a very unpleasant one, because he had been burgled several times before—you still do not shoot teenagers in the back when they are running downstairs. It seems to me that the law is perfectly all right and need not be changed. I am not a lawyer but that is what, looking at it from the outside, I think. There has been a lot of froth in the press about this, so we should be defrothing if we possibly can.


Secondary information

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
699 c1107 
Session
2007-08
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords chamber
Subjects
Data protection Criminal proceedings Administration of justice Crimes of violence Defamation Blasphemy Debt collection Personal records Privacy Young offenders Christianity Self-defence
Legislation
Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill 2006-07 to 2007-08
Link
View this Proceeding contribution on www.publications.parliament.uk