Visitors to this site are now required to give their explicit consent to Google Custom Search before they can use the search function, a change that places the permission process front and centre of the user experience. The requirement means that anyone wishing to search the site must first click an “Allow and Continue” button, thereby agreeing to the loading of Google Custom Search, which may deploy cookies or similar technologies. This approach mirrors a broader legal principle that consent must be freely given and informed — a concept that carries significant weight beyond the digital realm.
What consent means in law and practice
In the context of this website, consent is sought for the purpose of enabling a third-party search tool. Users are asked to make a clear, affirmative choice. Should they decline, the search feature will not be available. The site’s privacy policy offers further detail on how data is handled, although the immediate step is a simple binary decision: allow or block. This mirrors the legal definition of consent applied in UK criminal law, where the Sexual Offences Act 2003 states that a person consents only if they agree by choice and have the freedom and capacity to make that choice. Ambiguous behaviour, silence, or hesitation cannot be taken as consent. Consent given for one purpose does not imply consent for another, and pressure or inability to decide due to intoxication or other factors invalidates it entirely. These same standards of clarity and free choice underpin the permission mechanism now required for the site’s search function.
How the search function works
The search feature relies on Google Custom Search, a tool that uses cookies and similar technologies to process queries. Once a user has clicked “Allow and Continue”, the service is activated and can retrieve results from the site’s content. No personal data beyond what is necessary for the search operation is collected at this stage, but users are advised to consult the privacy policy for a full breakdown of data processing practices. The consent gate ensures that no tracking or data sharing occurs without prior approval, placing the user in control of their own information.
Privacy policy and broader implications
The site’s privacy policy outlines the types of data that may be collected, how they are used, and users’ rights regarding their information. It serves as the definitive guide for anyone who has consented to the search function and wishes to understand the subsequent handling of their data. This transparency is consistent with the principle that consent, once given, must be accompanied by clear information about what has been agreed to.
Consent in the criminal courts
The question of consent is not limited to digital interfaces. It is central to several recent criminal cases that have drawn public attention. At Stirling Sheriff Court, the jury is currently deliberating the trial of Muhammad Sheikhi, a 23-year-old Syrian asylum seeker who denies sexually assaulting two women in Falkirk. The alleged attacks occurred in the early hours of Sunday 30 November last year, near the Hotel Cladhan where Sheikhi was staying. Prosecutor Jamie Hilland has suggested that Sheikhi acted in a “predatory” manner, pointing to what he described as compelling similarities between the two alleged incidents, which he argued formed part of a single course of conduct. According to the prosecution, Sheikhi approached both women, offered them his phone, attempted to add them on Snapchat, then cornered them and sexually assaulted them. The first alleged victim was attacked at a railway bridge on Kerse Lane, where it is said Sheikhi hugged, kissed, and placed his hands under her clothing. The second woman was allegedly assaulted in Kerse Lane and the nearby Bellsmeadow skate park, where he is accused of pinning her against a tree and putting his hands under her clothing with intent to rape. Sheikhi’s lawyer, Paul Keenan, urged the jury to acquit his client of both charges. Sheriff Keith O’Mahony instructed the jury that their verdict must be based solely on the evidence presented and not swayed by emotional considerations, prejudice, or revulsion towards the alleged conduct.
In a separate case at Epping, Essex, Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, a 38-year-old asylum seeker from Ethiopia, has been found guilty of two counts of sexual assault and one of attempted sexual assault, committed days after his arrival in the UK. Kebatu was convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman, as well as inciting a girl to engage in sexual activity and harassment without violence. The trial heard that Kebatu attempted to kiss two girls after one offered him a pizza and invited them to the hotel where he was staying, suggesting they “come to the Bell hotel to have babies, then we could go to Kenya with each other.” His advances were rejected, and it was made clear to him that the girls were 14. The following day, he sexually assaulted a woman by placing his hand on her leg after she offered to help him with his CV. The woman told the court she felt shocked and uncomfortable. Kebatu’s behaviour triggered protests outside the hotel where he was housed.
These cases sit within a wider context of public discourse linking asylum seekers to crime. In the year to March 2026, the UK received 94,000 asylum applications, a 12% decrease from the previous year. The UK ranks fifth in Europe for the total number of asylum seekers received, but fifteenth per head of population. Official data on crime and immigration status is limited — the Ministry of Justice does not record offences by immigration status. However, some analyses have suggested that a 1% increase in the asylum seeker share of a local population is associated with a 1.1% rise in property crime, with no change in violent crime. Other research indicates that, overall, foreign nationals are imprisoned or convicted at roughly the same rate as British nationals. Media and political narratives have increasingly linked asylum seekers to sexual offences, a trend amplified by politicians and far-right groups. Experts argue that there is no statistically relevant evidence to support the claim that asylum seekers are more likely to commit crimes than the general population, and that demographic factors — such as the higher proportion of young men among asylum seekers — may account for any differences in certain crime categories. Concerns have also been raised about public safety risks associated with housing asylum seekers in hotels, with some data showing charges for various offences at those locations, though police forces do not consistently make nationality and immigration status public when charges are brought. In the year ending March 2026, 22,586 people were detained in immigration removal centres, including 13,354 asylum seekers.
At Brighton in April 2026, three asylum seekers were found guilty of raping a woman on Brighton beach — two convicted of rape, and a third found guilty as a secondary party for encouraging and filming the ordeal. The jury in the Falkirk trial of Muhammad Sheikhi continues its deliberations. Their verdict, like every aspect of these proceedings, must rest solely on the evidence and the legal definition of consent as it applies to the charges before them.
