00:02Misconduct in public office is a common law offence, which means there's no definition in an act of
00:10Parliament. It's an offence that's been developed over the centuries by the courts. Its origins lie
00:17in the Middle Ages, when it was deemed misconduct for a trusted officeholder to betray that trust
00:26in the way that he held his office. And it fell into disuse for a long time. It's only been
00:34revived
00:35in the last 50 years or so as a catch-all offence, initially against police officers,
00:42corrupt police officers, who were selling stories to newspapers.
00:49It's never been brought as a charge against a senior figure. It's typically used against
00:56police officers, or in some cases, prison officers, accepting bribes from prisoners.
01:02Because misconduct in public office is a common law offence, like all common law offences,
01:09the maximum is life imprisonment. But nobody's ever been sentenced to anything like such a long
01:16prison term. Typical sentences in cases of misconduct in public office are two to five years in prison.
01:25It's an unusual offence, in many ways, because it doesn't have a statutory tariff of what you
01:34should be sentencing somebody to. But it is also quite a difficult offence to prosecute successfully.
01:44And the range of sentences goes from basically a telling off or a fine right the way through
01:54to life imprisonment, depending on the seriousness and the gravity of the offence.
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