Convicted fraudster Kevin Phelan, from Omagh, Co Tyrone, is due to sentenced at the Crown Court in Leeds on Wednesday. Phelan (62) did not attend a sentencing hearing in January at which one of his co-conspirators was jailed for eight years and another wa... See more
State funding can raise tricky questions for the independence of the media, according to observers in the media itself, academia and politics. “Is it okay for news media to take money from the Government? Instinctively, the answer is no,” says Tom Felle, ... See more
The Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal from the Data Protection Commission (DPC) on a point of law arising from the commission’s decision to fine social media giant TikTok €530 million and direct it to stop sending user data to China. In April 2025, fo... See more
Prompted by a recent positive review of Japanese writer Asako Yuzuki’s latest novel, Hooked, I found myself, by way of a misunderstood birthday present hint, reading her earlier work, Butter, where one of the central characters, a female maybe serial kill... See more
Character references can be of use where a convicted person awaiting sentence for a first crime appears to have truly acted out of character, according to retired High Court judge Michael White. However, in more serious cases, where a judge has already de... See more
