Grayling pushes ahead with burglar law

Justice secretary Chris Grayling is pressing ahead with plans to provide further protection for householders who attack burglars.

Grayling said in a speech to the Conservative Party conference last month that householders should only be prosecuted where they use ‘grossly disproportionate force’.

The government will tomorrow table amendments to the Crime and Courts Bill, currently in the House of Lords, which would permit the use of ‘disproportionate force’ for the first time.

A spokesman for the MoJ said that a householder confronted by a burglar who “in the heat of the moment uses force that is reasonable in the circumstances but in the cold light of day seems disproportionate” would not be guilty of an offence.

He contrasted this with the current law which states that the use of disproportionate force can never be reasonable.

‘Grossly disproportionate force’ would not be permitted. Grayling said last month that stabbing a burglar who was lying unconscious on the floor would be an example of ‘grossly disproportionate’ force.

“The public should be in no doubt that the law is on their side,” the justice secretary said today.

“Householders who act instinctively and honestly in self-defence are victims of crime and should be treated that way. We need to dispel doubts in this area once and for all.”

In a separate development, new anti-stalking laws came into force yesterday, the UN International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

Crime prevention minister Jeremy Browne said the offences would sit alongside existing offences of harassment in the Protection of Harassment Act 1997.