Straw Pledges Review On Self-Defence Laws

Justice Minister Jack Straw has pledged to review laws protecting 'have-a-go heroes' who tackle criminals in England and Wales.

Mr Straw, who has been a 'have-a-go hero' himself four times, told the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth that those who sought to protect themselves, their families, their homes and other citizens should know that the law is on their side.

The Justice Minister said that he knew from personal experience that you had "all of a milisecond" to make the judgement of whether or not to intervene in a crime.

Mr Straw has intervened in four crimes. The first happened in 1980, when he overheard a burglar breaking into a members club in his Blackburn constituency. He chased them down the street and detained them until the police arrived.

In the mid-Eighties, Mr Straw detained an offender who had just robbed an 11-year-old boy at Oval Tube station in south London. He also chased a man who attacked a woman in the same station in the early 1990s, but failed to catch him. In 1996, he chased a man who had robbed a member of the public and detained him until the police arrived.

Mr Straw said that he wanted people to be reassured that they can use reasonable force to stop and detain offenders.

Commenting on Mr Straw's comments, Shadow Secretary for Justice, Nick Herbert, said: "Jack Straw, the government and Labour MPs have fought us for years when we repeatedly urged a change in the law to allow people to protect their homes against burglars, and the last time the government cynically signalled a change on this they reneged just months later.

"People will rightly question the motive and substance of this latest review and whether the author of Labour's Human Rights Act really believes in a long overdue rebalancing of the law in favour of the victims of crime."

(KMcA)