Law and religion round-up – 13th January

Foot-in-mouth by the Mail Online, exhumation of an alleged abuser, the next round of Masterpiece Cakeshop: just another week…

A UK court recognises sharia? Er, no

Following an adverse ruling from the Independent Press Standards Organisation, on 7 January the Mail Online published a correction to its earlier report of the judgment in Akhter v Khan [2018] EWFC 54. An article on 3 August last year asserted that “a UK court had said that the couple’s marriage was ‘valid and recognised’” and that “before the landmark decision, the courts did not recognise [a nikah ceremony] as a valid marriage”. In reality, the Court had said no such thing, as is evident from our report of the judgment here.

Exhumation of an alleged abuser

The Times (£) and The Telegraph carried reports that Stephen Eyre Ch had – exceptionally – granted a faculty in the Lichfield consistory court to exhume from a family grave of the ashes of a man accused by his step-granddaughter of childhood sexual abuse: see Re The Cremated Remains of AA [2018] ECC Lic 7Continue reading