Grayling seeks further protection for home-owners who tackle burglars

The justice secretary is pushing for further changes to the law to protect people from prosecution for attacking burglars who have broken into their homes.

Chris Grayling is to say in a speech to the Conservative Party conference this afternoon that householders should only be prosecuted where they use ‘grossly disproportionate force’. This would replace the current test of ‘reasonable force’.

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph today, Grayling said stabbing a burglar who was lying unconscious on the floor was an example of ‘grossly disproportionate’ force.

The justice secretary said he wanted to “lay the issue to rest once and for all”. The government recently toughened up the laws on self-defence where householders disturb burglars under Section 148 of LASPO.

David Farrer QC, criminal barrister at 7 Bedford Row, said once again a government was promising to reform the self-defence laws.

“We have seen the same populist sentiments from successive governments, however the realities are that there is no need to reform the current laws,” he said.

“In practice, the application of the reasonable force test is perfectly straightforward and is applied to facts of each individual case. The CPS in recent years has caught the mood of the country and is making sensible decisions on bringing prosecutions in self-defence incidents.”

The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, told a press conference last month that the law already provided adequate protection.

“I think you can phrase the law in all sorts of different ways, but the reality will end up being that the householder is entitled to use reasonable force to get rid of the burglar and that in measuring whether the force is reasonable or not, you are not doing a paper exercise six months later,” Lord Judge said.

“You have to put yourself in the position of the man or woman who has reacted to the presence of a burglar and has reacted with fury, with anxiety, with fear, and with all the various different emotions which will be generated, and who has no time for calm reflection.”