Perverting the course of justice

In British law, perversion of the course of justice is a criminal offence in which someone acts in a manner that in some way prevents justice being served on themselves or other parties. Perverting the course of justice is an offence at common law. It carries a theoretical maximum sentence of life imprisonment, although no sentence of more than 10 years has been handed down in the past one hundred years.

Perversion of the course of justice takes the form of one of three acts:

• Fabrication or disposal of evidence
• Intimidating a witness or juror
• Threatening a witness or juror

It is also criminal to conspire with another to pervert the course of justice and to intend to pervert the course of justice.

Similar crimes include perjury and contempt of court.

High-profile persons convicted of perverting the course of justice

• Jonathan Aitken
• Jeffrey Archer
• Maxine Carr
• Ian Huntley
• Nadine Milroy-Sloan, who knowingly falsely accused Neil Hamilton of rape

Reference

• Perjury and Perversion of the Course of Justice Considered (PDF) - a primer on the legal details of the offence