The bind-over, when used correctly, is a legitimate judicial tool in the fight against crime, says Syvil Lloyd Morris
The deeds of the so-called Kensal Green Tribe will go down in history as examples of cold, calculating cruelty. At the zenith of the campaign of terror, two members of the gang murdered the City lawyer, Tom ap Rhys Pryce in 2006. The gang’s foot soldiers committed up to 200 robberies over a two-month period at stations on London’s underground network. Victims who resisted were threatened, punched, kicked or stabbed. One woman was threatened with rape, if she did not comply.
On 19 February 2007, four members of the gang were convicted of conspiracy to rob. Four other members, including the two who murdered ap Rhys Pryce, had earlier pleaded guilty to the same offence. However, one ‘associate’—he denied that he was or had ever been a member of the gang—even though he was acquitted of the charges he faced, was still bound-over to be of good behaviour, because of what the trial judge termed his “reprehensible conduct”. This associate, ‘John’, had been
