Criminal cases that the Crown Prosecution Service take to court are in the news every day. This section also covers many issues related to our work, including violence against women and girls, hate crime, support for victims and witnesses, statistics, and speeches by the Director of Public Prosecutions and other senior staff.
Latest news
You can find our latest news stories here and search for older stories. You can also find more information about high-profile cases and the work of the CPS.
Working with the media
To make criminal court reporting more open, the CPS, police, and media representatives created a joint protocol (agreement) for working together. We are currently working on an updated version of the protocol.
Members of an armed gang which kidnapped and brutally tortured a man for 27 hours have been imprisoned for between 25 and six years.
At a flat in Cardiff the victim was waterboarded, beaten and forced to ask friends to provide a £50,000 ransom, while being threatened with guns and knives.
…
Press ReleaseViolent crimeCPSCymru/WalesLondon North
A woman has been found guilty of aiding the female genital mutilation of a young girl in Kenya in the first conviction of its kind.
Amina Noor, 39, from London, denied assisting a non-UK person to mutilate the female genitalia of a British citizen overseas but was today convicted by a jury…
Asset Recovery prosecution specialists have recovered a further £2.7million from two defendants following one of the largest multi-million-pound VAT fraud operations brought to justice by CPS and HMRC.
The case involved 21 defendants, including Syed Mubarak Ahmed and Shakeel Ahmad, who…
Foreword from Lionel Idan, CPS National Hate Crime Lead, and Mark Hamilton, NPCC Hate Crime Lead
As the respective National Hate Crime Leads for the Crown Prosecution Service and the National Police Chiefs’ Council, we continue to stand united in the commitment of both our organisations to the…
For the first time, the views of victims will be considered when deciding whether criminal cases involving a member of the armed forces should be dealt with by the civilian or military justice system in England and Wales.
Prosecutors have been told to seek assurances from the police that…
A former police officer for South Wales Police has been jailed after admitting to over 160 offences of child sexual abuse against victims as young as 10-years-old.
Lewis Edwards, 24, posed as a teenage boy to target young girls between 10 and 16 grooming them into sharing indecent images of…
A man who shouted antisemitic abuse at an orthodox Jewish man in Stamford Hill this week has been prosecuted for a hate crime.
Kevin Joseph, aged 60, pleaded guilty to religiously aggravated intentional harassment at Thames Magistrates’ Court on 18 October 2023.
Having heard the victim’s…
Between April and June this year, there was a 9.4% increase in the number of suspects charged in adult rape flagged cases from 859 in Q4 22/23 to 940 in Q1 23/24.
According to the Q1 data released today there has been an increase in adult rape flagged charges of 136% since January 2021.
There…
A man has pleaded guilty to raping a 13-year-old girl in Rotherham in the early 2000s.
The CPS prosecuted Mohammed Imran Ali Akhtar, 42, as part of Operation Stovewood, a major National Crime Agency investigation into child sexual abuse and exploitation which took place in Rotherham, South…
Press ReleaseSexual offencesInternational and organised crimeCPS
A gun-obsessed extremist who planned to replicate infamous mass shootings and built his own personal armoury of homemade weapons and explosives to carry out an attack has been convicted.
Reed Wischhusen, 32, of Wick St Lawrence, Weston-super-Mare, took inspiration from Raoul Moat, the Dunblane…
Press ReleaseViolent crimeCPSSouth West
Press Office contact details
Please note that our Press Office is NOT able to deal with issues or queries from members of the public - these contact details are for accredited journalists ONLY. Do not call this number unless you a member of the press. For all general enquiries, please visit contact.cps.gov.uk.
If you are a national or international journalist with a media enquiry, you can contact the CPS Press Office on 020 3357 0906 or email [email protected] (9am-5pm weekdays only).
For out-of-hours media enquiries please call 020 3357 0906 to reach the duty press officer.
If you follow us on social media, you can expect posts covering some or all of the following:
Operational updates on decisions to prosecute or take no further action;
Reactions and statements on trial outcomes;
Policy updates from the Director of Public Prosecutions and other prosecutors;
Updates on media appearances by CPS staff
Content that explains the role of the CPS and how we work
Highlighting of relevant work by our criminal justice partners and other stakeholders
We will aim to be fair and accurate in all the information we publish. We will aim to correct any inaccuracies as soon as possible.
We are unable to monitor social media round the clock. We are not able to engage with all those who seek a response from us due to resources but also due to privacy and the sensitive nature of some of our work. The best way to contact the CPS is through our website.
Please do not try to report crime using social media. To report crime, please call 101 or visit your local police station. In an emergency, always call 999.
If you follow us on social media we will not automatically follow you back. Being followed by us does not imply endorsement of any kind.
Media protocol
To ensure greater openness in the reporting of criminal proceedings, the CPS, the police and media representatives developed a joint protocol for working together. We are currently in the process of updating the protocol.
