The Secret Barrister @BarristerSecret Twitter profile | Pikagi

Pikagi

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

521,592

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1,234

Following

2,485

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56,363

Statuses

Wears a black cape and fights crime. Not Batman. • Award-winning Sunday Times No.1 bestselling author • The Secret Barrister • #FakeLaw • Nothing But The Truth

The Criminal Courts

https://t.co/mBqX1Ish90

Joined May 2015

Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

1 year

🎉IT’S PAPERBACK DAY!🎉 🔴Our justice system is SOFT 🔴 Too many CRIMINALS avoid prison 🔴Loopy judges are FAILING the public These views were mine Then something happened My secrets, humiliations & struggles to make sense of criminal justice #NothingButTheTruth OUT NOW👇

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

1 year

Available at all manner of bookshops, including: Waterstones: Amazon: Blackwells: Wildy’s: Hive: WH Smith: Foyles:…

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@canalespiadinha

@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

6 years

As a lawyer, I can confirm that I frequently compose tweets confessing to crimes and send them from my clients’ twitter accounts. It’s the first thing you learn at law school.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

4 years

If I’m worried about my vision, driving a car containing my family for 30 miles is a bold choice of eye test.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

4 years

The Prime Minister has basically copied and pasted my blogpost into a thread and passed it off as his own explanation. A blogpost which I had to write to rebut the lies he spent yesterday spouting. This is weapons grade shithousery.

@BorisJohnson

Boris Johnson

4 years

The terrible Khan case has highlighted a complicated area of law. There have been many inaccuracies reported about this case over the last 24 hours. Here are the details (1/16)

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

2 years

🔷 DEFENCE STATEMENT 🔷 1. There was no party 2. If there was a party, I did not attend 3. If I did attend the party, I did not realise it was a party 4. If I attended the party and realised it was a party, I did not know that parties were banned under the rules that I wrote.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

5 years

A story of a snowflake, in four acts:

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

3 years

I’m no US constitutional lawyer, but if inciting a coup isn’t an impeachable offence, I’d say there’s something wrong with your system.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

2 years

I cannot understand why #r4today is providing a platform for family and friends of Ghislaine Maxwell to proclaim her innocence and undermine the jury’s verdicts. Is this service to be made available to all convicted sex offenders?

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

6 years

I’ll have a go. Because Obama didn’t: 🔹sexually assault women 🔹violate the rule of law 🔹threaten to silence the free press 🔹describe the KKK as “very fine people” 🔹mock the disabled 🔹lie about literally everything 🔹abuse his position for self-gain 🔹say racist things 24/7

@spikedonline

spiked

6 years

Brendan O’Neill on the question none of today’s protesters can answer — why didn’t you march against Obama?

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

5 years

I think we’re possibly better off replacing the violent men.

@ITVCentral

ITV News Central

5 years

Blunt utensils will replace kitchen knives in the homes of victims of domestic violence. It's hoped it will help save lives - what do you think ?

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

2 years

I can’t think of many times in my career as a criminal prosecutor when the police have refused to look for evidence on the basis that they currently don’t have enough evidence.

@SkyNews

Sky News

2 years

BREAKING: The Metropolitan Police says it will not investigate allegations of a party at Downing Street due to an "absence of evidence" and a force policy not to investigate retrospective breaches of coronavirus regulations. Read more here:

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

4 years

Maybe someone should gently direct Piers to the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, because this obsessive, unhinged behaviour is the kind of I thing I see a lot of men prosecuted for.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

4 years

I hope and expect that when this Civil Servant is identified, the government will accept that they were simply following instinct and doing what any reasonable person would do.

@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

4 years

Holy moly. (Screenshot added for when original tweet is deleted)

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

2 years

@pritipatel @BorisJohnson You have achieved nothing other than to make our country smaller and meaner. You took pleasure in cruelty; most enthusiastically so when you could target it at society’s most vulnerable. Your departure improves politics more than anything else in your career has or ever could.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

2 years

Happy to confirm that, contrary to the impression that might be gleaned from our Attorney General’s considered views, it is not yet a criminal or electoral offence to vote for a party that is not the government.

@Haggis_UK

Haggis_UK 🇬🇧 🇪🇺

2 years

Suella Braverman(Attorney General) - "It's disappointing to see that there's actually a dishonest electoral pact between the LibDems & Labour, & that's more worrying"

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

4 years

I have disagreed with many (probably all) governments in my lifetime. I have never been as ashamed as I am now that this is the state of our politics, and of the attitude of the Prime Minister to the rule of law.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

3 years

Any politician of any party who claims that the answer to tackling violence against women is simply a matter of “tougher sentences” is not being honest with the public. Let me tell you about a case I’m currently prosecuting. [THREAD]

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

5 years

I’ve lost count of the number of domestic violence cases I’ve successfully prosecuted which only came to the police attention because of the actions of concerned neighbours. These people are literal life-savers. For MPs to discourage this for political point scoring is shameful.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

4 years

I worry that this seismic change to our constitution is not being given the attention it urgently warrants. So I'll say again: The government wants to abolish jury trials in order to address a court backlog caused by its own cuts, under the pretence that it was caused by Covid.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

5 years

28 months ago, the Conservative Party elected Theresa May leader with 60% of the vote. 29 months ago, 51.9% of voters supported leaving the EU. On one of these, it’s fine to ask if people have changed their minds. To do so on the other is apparently an affront to democracy.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

3 years

Starting to feel that being governed by a cowardly indecisive attention-seeker reliant on a cabinet of intellectually dull sycophants and one-note ideologues during a health crisis is not as fun as the posters all suggested.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

4 years

🛑Usman Khan was released under a sentencing regime which no longer exists 🛑Johnson’s manifesto says not a single word about current Extended Sentences. 🛑The minor changes he has proposed to automatic release would not have applied to Khan. Exploitative, dishonest, cynical.

@SkyNews

Sky News

4 years

"This guy was out on automatic early release and I have long said that this system simply isn't working." PM @BorisJohnson says his "immediate takeaway" from the #LondonBridge attack is that people should 'serve the term of their sentence'. Read more:

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

2 years

Think of how many thousands of people desperately wanted to “just” raise a glass to loved ones they had lost; loved ones who had died alone. But they didn’t. Because @BorisJohnson told them they couldn’t. And they followed his rules.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

2 years

Gentle reminder for the hard of thinking: Lawyers have no power to “block” anything. Literally no power at all. All they do is present a person’s case to a court. And a court has no power to “block” anything that the government does, unless the government has broken the law.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

2 years

What’s so hard to understand? He is sickened by the party that didn’t happen and which, if it did happen, definitely broke no rules, which is why he will hold an inquiry and hand over evidence that doesn’t exist to the Met, and if you question any of that you are playing politics

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

4 months

@MrHarryCole Lawyers represent people who do bad things. That’s the rule of law. That is civilisation. You owe your readers an apology for insulting them with this infantile, anti-democratic bilge. Cringingly embarrassing.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

3 years

The Conservative Party’s reaction to Patel’s proven track record of bullying is identical to the Republican Party’s indulgence of Trump’s demagoguery. Deny, gaslight and repeat. We’re in trouble.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

4 years

You know who stops governments breaking the law in a very specific and limited way? Activist Lawyers. This is why they’re coming for us.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

4 years

One day, when politics is over, Robert Buckland and Suella Braverman will want to return to the law. They will have to look the profession in the eye, knowing that when put to the test, they betrayed our principles and sold out the rule of law for transient political ambition.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

4 years

No there isn’t.

@DesmondSwayne

rt hon Sir Desmond Swayne TD MP

4 years

There is a principle in international law that no country can be bound by an obligation when that obligation is interpreted in such a way as to undermine the very integrity of that country.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

2 years

If you are caught speeding 4 times in 3 years, the law operates to automatically disqualify you from driving, precisely *because* your cumulative conduct represents a danger to the public. If No10 have any other inspired criminal law analogies they wish to try, I’m here all day.

@paulwaugh

Paul Waugh

2 years

The No10 defence if more fines come: “If you’re caught speeding at 35mph four times, that doesn’t mean that you were speeding at 140mph. It doesn’t mean that you really endangered life because the cumulative effect of all your speeding in 30mph zones amounts to 140pmh, does it?”

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

1 year

Anybody who supports the death penalty is by definition supporting a system which results in the state killing innocent people. Only somebody with no understanding of history or criminal justice could fail to understand this. And such a person has no place in politics.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

6 months

After disgracing her office as Attorney General and twice disgracing her office as Home Secretary, the Bar Standards Board should now consider whether Suella Braverman’s hateful, divisive rhetoric and record of undermining the rule of law is compatible with membership of the Bar.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

4 years

He’s now simply ignoring the questions. The press should all keep asking the same question until he answers. The contempt that this Prime Minister has for the people of this country is jaw-dropping. Never seen anything like it. Trump has arrived.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

4 years

@michaelgove I worry Michael that you and a number of your colleagues share fundamental misunderstandings as to what is and is not a crime. I’m here if you’d like some help with your understanding.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

3 years

A Covid vaccine, Trump losing, Cummings out of government. This finale to 2020 has all gone a bit Richard Curtis.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

4 years

Next week: Michael takes a ferret to compete at Crufts and is refused entry just because he’s a Conservative.

@michaelgove

Michael Gove

4 years

Tonight I went to Channel 4 to talk about climate change but Jeremy Corbyn and Nicola Sturgeon refused to debate a Conservative #climatedebate

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

2 years

This is a lie. 81.5% voted for this action. There is no “15% pay rise” on offer. There is no “£7,000 more a year”. Junior criminal barristers will remain on less than minimum wage. Read the truth here:

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

4 years

I can’t live with the secrecy anymore. I’m breaking cover.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

4 years

Right lads. Who wants to get Rashford signed up to reverse the cuts to the justice system?

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

4 years

Any defence lawyer in court this week now has it from the very top of government: If your client is following “instinct” in breaching the Regulations, the Regulations do not apply, and no prosecution should follow.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

3 years

By tomorrow morning, my anonymity will be busted. I just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported me, and to apologise to anyone who is disappointed by the revelation of me as H.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

4 years

If the Attorney General @SuellaBraverman has been given that account, including the Barnard Castle eye-test, and feels able to advise the Cabinet with confidence that no breach has occurred, I would respectfully question her powers of legal analysis and judgement.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

2 years

As Attorney General, Ms Braverman repeatedly abused her office for political capital; condoned law-breaking; jeopardised a potential criminal investigation into a political ally; briefed against judges in the tabloids; and stayed silent as the criminal justice system collapsed 👍

@SuellaBraverman

Suella Braverman MP

@SuellaBraverman

2 years

As Attorney General I've worked on the toughest decisions we have had to make: from Brexit delivery, criminal justice, to human rights reform. I have the experience and the conviction to get this country back on track #Suella4PM

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

3 years

This Home Secretary has done more in recent times than any mainstream politician to legitimise, encourage and incite the attitudes and behaviour that she now purports to condemn.

@pritipatel

Priti Patel MP

3 years

I am disgusted that @England players who have given so much for our country this summer have been subject to vile racist abuse on social media. It has no place in our country and I back the police to hold those responsible accountable.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

6 years

Hello and thank you to the sudden surge of new American followers. Especially the several hundred who took this tweet literally and are keen to tell me what a terrible lawyer I am. You are my favourites.

@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

6 years

As a lawyer, I can confirm that I frequently compose tweets confessing to crimes and send them from my clients’ twitter accounts. It’s the first thing you learn at law school.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

2 years

I’ll be honest. I did not think our country had produced a man more stupid than the burglar I once prosecuted who posted selfies of him committing the burglary on his own Facebook account. I was wrong.

@PippaCrerar

Pippa Crerar

2 years

EXCL: Police have a photo of Boris Johnson holding a can of a beer at his lockdown birthday party in June 2020 - taken by his taxpayer funded official photographer.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

4 years

Another lie. On a day when campaigning has supposedly been suspended, the Cabinet, from PM to Home Secretary to ministers, is out in force telling flagrant lies about the criminal justice system to score cheap points out of people’s deaths. What a country we live in.

@pritipatel

Priti Patel MP

4 years

Because legislation brought in by your government in 2008 meant that dangerous terrorists had to automatically be released after half of their jail term. Conservatives changed the law in 2012 to end your automatic release policy but Khan was convicted before this.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

3 years

The CPS did not cut 21,000 police officers. The CPS did not choose to have its budget cut by £500m. The CPS did not choose to lose a quarter of its staff. The CPS did not choose to starve the courts and cause a record backlog. The politicians that Andrew supports did that.

@toryboypierce

Andrew Pierce

3 years

Prosecutions for violent crimes fallen to lowest in 10 years but number of crimes up. another failure of @CPSUK

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

2 years

He was “handed” precisely £0. Legal aid of £20,000 to ensure that one of the most dangerous men in our country’s history was safely convicted and lawfully imprisoned for life is an absolute bargain.

@DailyMailUK

Mail+

2 years

Sarah Everard's killer Wayne Couzens was handed over £20,000 in legal aid

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

2 years

“Except my back garden”

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

2 years

We don’t have enough money to run a justice system that can investigate and try serious criminal cases in less than four years. But we do have money to fly empty planes to Rwanda to show just how tough we are on people seeking sanctuary. What a time to be alive.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

4 years

When I chose a career prosecuting and defending at the publicly-funded Criminal Bar, ensuring fair trials for vulnerable victims, accused and the public, I did not envisage being judged by an ex-tobacco lobbyist and a journalist sacked for making up stories. Funny old world.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

4 years

In over a decade of prosecuting and defending criminal cases involving the supply of drugs, from street dealing to multi-million pound importations, I have yet to encounter the phenomenon of a drug dealer who accepts food parcels in lieu of cash. Anybody?

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

2 years

Was there a single day in December 2020 when anybody in Downing Street was actually working?

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

1 year

I prosecute and defend in the most serious cases of child sexual abuse. What makes my job often impossible is the enthusiastic defunding of the criminal justice system by @SuellaBraverman and her colleagues. Justice often isn’t done. And it’s her fault.

@BBCPolitics

BBC Politics

1 year

“Justice hasn’t been done” Home Secretary Suella Braverman says “senior politicians in Labour-run areas” failed to prevent cases of child sexual abuse because they did not want to “call out people along ethnic lines” #BBCLauraK

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

3 years

Today my chunky-fingered typing has somehow caused autocorrect to assume that I intended to write “trial by wombat”, and now I can think of no finer mode of justice.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

4 years

Gutter journalism. #FakeLaw by The Sun and The Mail. A truly vile exploitation of a grieving widow to make dishonest and intellectually void attacks on legal aid and the rule of law. Here’s why it’s nonsense: [THREAD]

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

4 years

The thing is that the government wouldn’t keep finding itself frustrated by enemy of the people judges and activist lawyers if it just stopped breaking the law.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

2 years

Try the function room at 10 Downing Street.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

2 years

As the Prime Minister repeats far-right conspiracy falsehoods about Jimmy Savile to score political points, a reminder that he is on record as saying that investigating child sexual abuse is “spaffing money up the wall”.

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Boris Johnson says '£60m spaffed up the wall' on child abuse inquiries

The former foreign secretary makes the remark while discussing police funding during a radio interview.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

4 years

A Home Secretary who has publicly supported the death penalty. A Justice Secretary who is suggesting removing the right to jury trial to cover up the chronic defunding of the justice system. A herd of backbench MPs who want to politicise the judiciary. We should be terrified.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

4 years

Well this is a sentence I did not wake up expecting to read today.

@carltonreid

Carlton Reid

4 years

Coverage of Boris Johnson’s plagiarism from ⁦ @BarristerSecret ⁩ goes international.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

2 years

The triviality of the breaches is not a defence. Nor mitigation. People died alone because their families obeyed the laws that the Prime Minister made. Meanwhile, he ignored them in multiple, trivial ways just because he could. It is hard to conceive of a more serious breach.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

4 years

Guys! Guys! We triggered Dom! Bless him. (From today’s Times)

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

6 years

Boris is *very* clever, referencing the obscure 14th century Statute of Praemunire and suggesting that Theresa May could be prosecuted under it. He’d be even cleverer if he’d spotted that Praemunire was repealed 51 years ago by the Criminal Law Act 1967. #Lawyered

@DarranMarshall

Darran Marshall

@DarranMarshall

6 years

Applause as Britain's former Foreign Secretary says the Prime Minister "risks prosecution" for her Chequers proposal. #CPC18 #Boris #Brexit #Chequers .

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

3 years

Just imagine how it must feel right now to have publicly backed racists against this incredible group of players.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

3 years

Look, if politicians can’t hire their mates and pay them £1,000 a day and engage in sexual congress with them in breach of their own public health guidance, then we’re not going to continue to attract the brightest and the best to front-line politics.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

4 years

I really don’t want to be a doubting Thomas here. But I am starting to tentatively question whether, out of a country of 70 million, we have successfully identified the very best person we have to lead us through an unprecedented global crisis.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

4 years

@realDonaldTrump @FLOTUS Have you tried bleach?

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

4 years

Thanks @BBCNews .

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

5 years

This is a filthy lie. He is singled out because he has a well-earned reputation as the nation’s least competent man, at a time when Iain Duncan Smith is alive.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

2 years

Stand by for: 1. This did not happen. 2. It did happen, but the Prime Minister knew nothing about it. 3. The Prime Minister knew about it, but it wasn’t technically blackmail. 4. It was blackmail, but the Prime Minister wasn’t told that blackmail was against the law.

@lewis_goodall

Lewis Goodall

2 years

Serious. Tory MP William Wragg accuses govt whips and No 10 of blackmail and breaking ministerial code. Says they’ve threatened to withdraw investment from MPs’ constituencies if they support no confidence. Also threatened with negative press stories.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

2 years

I don’t understand all the fuss. Who better to investigate a party that never happened than somebody who attended it?

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

4 years

What a grim and exhausting day. Still hard to believe that the Prime Minister stood before the country and decreed that the rules that apply to us do not apply to his chum. The sacrifices demanded of, and willingly given, by the rest of us, are not required of him. Night all.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

3 months

I have represented killers, rapists and child sex offenders, because the rule of law requires that everyone, whatever they have done, be treated lawfully. If a politician went on TV and claimed I *supported* the acts of my clients, I would sue the platform shoes off them.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

3 years

If you saw the cases that come before the courts in which people have been killed by exhausted HGV drivers, you would not be so joyously carefree about extending the rules on drivers’ hours. They exist for a reason.

@grantshapps

Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP

3 years

We’re aware of a shortage of HGV drivers, so I'm announcing a temp extension of drivers' hours rules from Mon 12 July, giving flexibility to drivers & operators to make slightly longer journeys. We've ramped up the number of driving tests available & will consider other measures.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

2 years

Complete silence from the Lord Chancellor @DominicRaab and the Attorney General @SuellaBraverman as their colleagues spread hateful lies about lawyers, judges and our legal system. Not a word of support for the professionals being attacked for doing their jobs. Cowards.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

2 years

“I’m too lazy and/or stupid to read/understand the laws that I wrote” and “I’m the best person to lead as the world teeters on the brink of nuclear war” are what lawyers might refer to as “defences in the alternative”.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

3 years

I prosecute murderers while you pose in hi-vis, dog whistling about “chain gangs”. I prosecute rapists while you prolong the agony of victims by cutting criminal justice to the bone. One of us is acting against the interests of the public, @BorisJohnson . It’s not me.

@Haggis_UK

Haggis_UK 🇬🇧 🇪🇺

3 years

Boris Johnson - "Labour has consistently taken the side of left-wing criminal justice lawyers against the interests of the public." #LBC

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

2 years

This whole incident is the greatest self-own in criminal legal history since my client who wrote down his name and address on a piece of paper and accidentally dropped it in the house that he burgled.

@AdamBienkov

Adam Bienkov

2 years

Amazing to think that Boris Johnson spent £2.6 million on this room for daily televised press briefings and the only clip we'll ever see from them is when his Press Secretary joked about when they all broke the law.

Tweet media one

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

4 years

There have been a lot of party leaders over the years with whose vision and priorities I’ve strongly disagreed. But watching #bbcqt on catch-up, what is unique about @BorisJohnson is how he displays absolutely no interest in improving the lives of anyone else. It’s all a game.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

5 years

There’s going to be a lot of misinformation over the next few days about the Supreme Court, so as a public service, I’d invite lawyers to share some little-known legal facts. I’ll start: Each Supreme Court judge enters court to their own Diana Ross song. #SupremeCourtFacts

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

2 months

This is untrue. Barristers are forbidden from refusing to represent unpopular clients. It is in our professional code. If asked to represent a “murderous terrorist”, we cannot refuse on the grounds that we think murder and terrorism are bad. This is really, really basic stuff.

@Arron_banks

Arron Banks

2 months

Lawyers can of course choose not to representing murderous terrorists rather than actively making a career out of it. Like lawyers that represent the mob ..

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

4 years

A number of people have asked questions about the tragic case of Caroline Flack. I have no particular insight into her case or her personal circumstances. But some general observations are set out below for assistance.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

4 years

Some facts: 1. Amman grew up and was radicalised while Johnson’s party was in govt 2. Amman was sentenced under legislation in force while Johnson’s party was in govt 3. Amman was imprisoned and “rehabilitated” in prisons whose budget was cut by 40% by Johnson’s party in govt

@BuzzFeedNewsUK

BuzzFeed News UK

@BuzzFeedNewsUK

4 years

"I think the question that everybody has about the individual concerned is what he was doing out on automatic early release," said Boris Johnson following a speech on Monday.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

3 years

Not that it’s going to move the needle as far as the Fantastically Unelectable Mr Fox is concerned, but to bust his spurt of #FakeLaw , let me confirm that the London Mayor has no power at all to set criminal sentences.

Tweet media one

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

2 years

We must lift the cap on multi-million pound banker bonuses because we don’t have enough high-earning bankers. But we must not pay junior criminal barristers more than minimum wage even though we have a critical shortage of criminal barristers. Have I understood?

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

4 months

As the issue of compensation for miscarriages of justice is rightly in the news, it’s timely to note that in 2014, the government changed the law to make it all but impossible for people wrongly convicted and imprisoned to claim compensation.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

4 years

A gentle reminder to government ministers that declaring “a crime has been committed” and that “prosecution should follow” is very much the sort of thing that the independent judicial process is there to decide, not grandstanding ministers hoping to win easy claps.

@BBCPolitics

BBC Politics

4 years

Policing minister Kit Malthouse says "a crime has been committed" and protesters who pulled down a statue of Edward Colston in Bristol should be punished "Evidence should be gathered, a prosecution should follow" #BBCBreakfast

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

16 days

Just off for a hearing in a rape case. Allegation reported in 2021, trial not before 2025, if we’re all lucky. No podium speeches from the Prime Minister about this. No promises to magic up more judges, courts or lawyers. Just silence, and the threat of further cuts to come.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

4 years

Given that Mary was supposed to be self-isolating at the time the child was taken to hospital, why did she go with him, instead of the niece whom you’ve moved next to specifically for this very purpose?

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

4 years

🛑I went back to work after my wife developed Covid symptoms 🛑We drove 260 miles for childcare in case we both got ill, but didn’t rely on it when we both got ill 🛑The lying media are to blame 🛑No I don’t know why my wife lied in the media 🛑[CHECKS NOTES]... an eye test.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

4 years

As fingers are frantically pointed in every direction, and articles are deleted and history is hastily rewritten, maybe our priority should instead be to look at how we treat the people - the living, breathing, bleeding human beings - at the centre of our criminal justice system.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

3 years

Today’s government-sponsored lesson for Bullying Awareness Week is that if you claim you’re not aware you’re a bully then that’s what really matters.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

3 years

Boris Johnson “gets tough” on burglars. The burglary I prosecuted this week was from 2018. The trial is Summer 2022. All because @BorisJohnson and his colleagues defunded the criminal justice system. There’s never been a better time to be a criminal.

Tweet media one

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

6 months

There’s not a single grown-up among them, is there? It’s government by the smallest, pettiest, thickest individuals our country has had the misfortune to produce.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

4 years

So apparently a lot of folk don’t mind that the criminal justice system is broken, and are happy to vote for the people who (a) broke it and (b) are refusing to fix it. I have to say, I find this mildly irksome.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

4 years

Today’s alleged shoplifter was going to be a swift guilty plea, but may be worth a trial on the basis he was just testing the capacity of his pockets.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

5 years

“The point is that [having capital punishment] is a deterrent. If you have a strong deterrent...” “It’s not a deterrent if you kill the wrong people.” Ian Hislop spelling out the basics to the woman who is now our Home Secretary. God help us.

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@BarristerSecret

The Secret Barrister

@BarristerSecret

5 years

“If judges won’t make decisions that I agree with, they should be replaced with judges who will.” Look out for this. It’s rife.

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