Law Weblog

Age of criminal responsibility to remain ten

Sunday 14 March 2010 at 8:39 am | In News | Post Comment It has been reported that the Government has rejected calls from their own adviser Dr Maggie Atkinson, the Children’s Commissioner to raise the age of criminal responsibility from ten to twelve.

The Ministry of Justice has dismissed Dr Atkinson’s claim that Jamie Bulger’s killers should not have been prosecuted for the crime.  Lady Justice Butler Sloss, retired President of the Family Division of the High Court, described Dr Atkinson’s proposal to change the age of criminality as “unworkable”.

Dr Atkinson claimed politicians were not putting the needs of children first because they were so influenced by the views of victims’ relatives.

Dr Atkinson described the murder of James as ‘unpleasant’ which has caused offence. There are calls for her to apologise, resign or be sacked.

Her comments come after Denise Fergus, the mother of James Bulger, met Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, this week to discuss the return to custody of one of her two-year-old son’s killers, Jon Venables.

When Dr Atkinson’s appointment was announced in October there were doubts about her raised by MPs.  She has been in post for two weeks.

The age of criminal responsibility in England was in effect reduced from fourteen to ten by Jack Straw in 1998 when he ended the presumption that children under fourteen did not know the difference between right and wrong.

In other parts of Europe the age ranges from fourteen to eighteen.