The UK's terror watchdog has recommended that a new offence to prevent mass casualty attacks before they happen, should be considered in light of the Southport murders.
But the review commission by the Home Secretary following the attacks in July, also concluded that the terrorism definition should not be changed.
Jonathan Hall KC said the legal definition is “already wide” and expanding the threshold would “increase the possibility of inaccurate use and, in theory, abuse”.
Report by Kennedyl. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
But the review commission by the Home Secretary following the attacks in July, also concluded that the terrorism definition should not be changed.
Jonathan Hall KC said the legal definition is “already wide” and expanding the threshold would “increase the possibility of inaccurate use and, in theory, abuse”.
Report by Kennedyl. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00Even a really horrific act of violence like Rudy Cabana's, unless it's done in
00:07order to advance a political or religious or ideological or racial cause,
00:12just can't be squeezed into the terrorism definition. It would change so
00:16much about the way in which we do business. For example, if someone carrying
00:21out an act like that was a terrorist, the threat level would have to change. And
00:25I've looked at it, I've thought, is it possible to find a way of changing the
00:30definition so that maybe you could bring some of those extra resources like the
00:34police and MI5 to try and stop this sort of thing happening again? Ultimately I
00:38think it's just impossible to do that. We've got a lot of laws that are
00:41designed for terrorist organisations, people who've got ideologies, religious,
00:45racial or whatever. You can't just then say let's get rid of that because
00:50otherwise people who are gangsters, football hooligans, people who who love
00:55violence would find themselves being treated as terrorism.