To bug or not to bug?

Please note that this post is from 2008. Evaluate with care and in light of later events.

Times Online – To bug or not to bug?:

Fury and outrage – but not surprise – were the emotions expressed by most criminal lawyers this week to the disclosure in The Times that a solicitor’s conversation with his client, a prisoner serving life, had been bugged by the police.

The UK is almost alone in having no judicial authorisation of surveillance activity. If this evidence is now to be used in court, then it is time, say groups such as Liberty and Justice, to remove the police and politicians from this task and hand it to the judges.

So, will the UK finally find a way to allow wiretap evidence into court, instead of leaving it the security services alone to use/abuse such techniques?

See also:

• UK Home Office considers special judges to oversee terrorism wiretap cases
• UK PM backs admitting wiretap evidence at trial
• Brown backs court phone tap use