Two magistrates retreated hastily from a courtroom as an enraged defendant shouted through the reinforced glass of the dock. Neville McKenzie, 46, bellowed, “You lot are going to have to beat me up, you lot are going to have to do me over to get me out of here,” prompting a security guard to call for reinforcements. His outburst came amid concerns raised by his lawyer that he was being sentenced for an offence of which he had already been cleared.
Chaos in the Courtroom
The incident was typical of the chaos and confusion witnessed at Highbury Corner magistrates court, where a duty solicitor and prosecutor grappled with 13 cases. Sexual predator Simon Levy was bailed twice here last year despite being suspected of murder and charged with a string of attacks on the Underground. Levy, already a convicted sex offender, went on to kill mum-of-four Sheryl Wilkins, 39, in a car park in Tottenham, North London, last August. He will die in jail after being sentenced last week to a whole-life order for murdering Sheryl and grandmother Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo, 53, five months earlier.
System Under Strain
Violent criminals like Levy are being bailed by a broken justice system in which cases are taking years to come to trial, while jails are full. Years of underfunding have led to court buildings falling into disrepair, while reductions in legal aid mean there are fewer barristers to tackle the backlog. Analysis by the Law Society in June found that crown courts’ waiting times have increased 86% in a decade, with that figure at 122% in London. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley warned last year that urgent action was needed over the problem of repeat offenders being released on bail.
Legal Expert Weighs In
Matthew Claughton, managing director of Olliers Solicitors, said of the justice system: “It’s so low in the list of priorities, no one’s prepared to address it until the problems arise. I think we need to be honest about it and take politics out of sentencing because we have sentence inflation that beats every other European country and crime isn’t going up. We need greater judicial discretion to allow them to impose non-custodial sentences.”
Levy's Case Details
Levy’s was one of 18 cases listed at a busy Highbury Corner magistrates court session on Saturday, May 3 last year, when he appeared charged with five sex assaults on the Tube. No application was made to remand him despite British Transport Police officers requesting that bail be opposed as he was being investigated for murder and rape. A document sent to the prosecutor said: “Police have significant concerns that if granted bail, Levy will continue in his predatory sexual offending against female members of [the] public.” Levy was bailed on condition he did not travel on the Tube at rush hour. Mr Claughton said: “Information is going to be missed and people are doing their best in difficult circumstances. The whole thing is a nightmare.”
Levy then appeared at the court on June 21 before magistrates Jacqueline Scott, Marta Corti and Gerry Teague to deny nine Tube assault charges. Prosecutor Jyothi Somavarapu applied for him to be remanded, but sources claimed: “Not all relevant information was put before the court.” A document sent to the CPS by the BTP failed to mention he was under investigation for murder and rape.
McKenzie's Apology
On Tuesday, Court 7 had a comparatively light workload of 13 defendants listed for a variety of offences. After McKenzie’s outburst, duty solicitor Liz Sergeant calmly reassured him that she would deal with an outstanding charge of stealing chocolates worth £44 from a Morrisons in Stamford Hill, North London. Ms Sergeant also promised to ensure his puppies were looked after while he served the remainder of his current sentence. He had been jailed for 16 months at Wood Green crown court in April for a public order offence. When the JPs returned after lunch, McKenzie apologised and was handed a conditional discharge after admitting to stealing the chocolate.
Bail Failures Continue
Earlier, alleged rapist Cristian Camilo, 31, had appeared, having been arrested the day before on suspicion of breaching his bail conditions. He was released as he had not been brought before the court within the 24-hour deadline and is now set to remain on bail until his trial in January 2029. Camilo is among thousands of defendants waiting years on bail. Sir Mark said this week that his officers regularly handle cases of people repeatedly charged with carrying knives, and sometimes using them, but who are still bailed. He said: “It’s harder and harder to get these cases through the courts. We’ve got cases – assaulting emergency worker cases, domestic violence triangulation cases – being listed for 2029, 2030. Those risks are carried in the community.”
He added that nothing happened when offenders were arrested for breaching their electronic tag conditions, and so the whole tagging procedure became a pointless endeavour. Sir Mark said there were currently 10,800 registered sex offenders in London and that the number grows by 100 every three months. He said: “Meanwhile, the Met that I lead today is 4,000 people smaller than it was four years ago. This is a systemic disinvestment by successive governments in the agencies that keep people safe: police, prisons, courts, etcetera. The whole system is struggling and because the risk eventually lands in communities, then people say, ‘well, the police need to deal with this’ – we need to be realistic about what’s achievable. A lot of those 10,800 people are dangerous, that is far more than our counter-terrorism colleagues are monitoring on a daily basis closely.”
Mr Claughton believes we will continue to have scandals like Levy’s until a long term solution is found. He said: “We’ve got a system under strain and it needs to be looked at on a much wider basis than an individual case. The police, the CPS, the courts, public funding of defence, the prison system, the probation service, they are all crying out for attention.” The Met, BTP and CPS have all apologised for failings in Levy’s case.
