I popped to Prospero House this morning to check out how 1 of the 10 extra Nightingale courts, opened to help the backlog of cases, is going. It's 1 of 3 extra courts dealing with crime. As a sister court to Southwark Crown Court, MoJ said it would do fraud & white collar crime.
There are three courtrooms as Prospero House, which opened on Monday. Every day this week, except Thursday, only 2 of the 3 courts there were sitting. Court 2 has not been used, except for a pre-trial review yesterday.
earlier this week, Court 1 had a four-day fraud (offences committed in Oct/Nov 2018) and Court 3 had a four-day conspiracy to defraud trial (offences in Oct 2017 & July 2018). Convictions in both cases yesterday.
Today, only courts 1 & 3 had cases listed -- no trials and all using the video link. I went into court 3 a couple of time, but the courtroom wasn't actually being used -- it looked like the judge was dealing with the cases elsewhere.
So, I spent the morning in court 1, which had two case management hearings to fix trial dates. The courtroom was spacious, with individual desks for everyone. Nowhere for the press, who have to sit in one of five seats in the pubic gallery at the back, with no desk.
Both cases dealt with using cloud video platform - only the judge (wig & robes) & clerk (gown) were in the huge courtroom - lawyers (not robed) attended via videolink & defendants not required. These hearings could have been dealt with anywhere & this extra court was not needed.
Court due to sit at 10, but lots of issues with cloud video platform (CVP) - terrible screeching, background noise, lawyers either couldn't hear the court or vice versa, someone on mute lots of "I can't hear you", "can you hear me", then eerie echo "sorry, sorry" as it froze.
One of the barristers was sitting so that the court could see only her chest area and not her face. The clerk delicately advised her to reposition herself or the camera, saying "I can only see your necklace".
At 10.25 the judge came in, with dreadful screeching from the CVP still going on. The usher read out the usual spiel: "Court rise. All persons having any business with the court, draw near and give your attendance. God save the Queen."
The clerk had to shout to be heard above the noise from the CVP, as he told the parties that just because the matter was being dealt with over the secure video link, it did not change the "serious nature or importance" of the hearing.
The lawyers couldn't hear the clerk because he was not near enough to a microphone. So much background noise from the room where the female lawyer (whose face we could now see) was that she had to mute herself, impossible to hear her anyway for some reason.
Trial date for offences of sexual assault & assault by beating, alleged to have been committed in January 2020, set for November. Parties told to lodge any dox for the juries time for them to be sanitised.
Of go the lawyers in that case. Woman in the ether on the CVP says "Oh crap". One of the barristers in the next case (not the expletive utterer) comes on the screen -- he's on the phone.
Clerk talks to lawyers to identify case & them.
Barrister: Hello, is anyone there, hello.
Clerk: I'm afraid you've frozen, so we can't hear you.
Barrister: Can you hear me.
Barrister: Hello, is anyone there, hello.
Clerk: I'm afraid you've frozen, so we can't hear you.
Barrister: Can you hear me.
Trial date for arranging or facilitating a child sex offence, alleged to have taken place in April 2019, set for December 2020. Court, which sat at 10.25, rises at 10.45 -- for the day -- after sitting for a grand total of 20 minutes.
In fairness, clerk said CVP usually works well, but it was first time the technology had been used at Prospero House. Looking at where the jury would sit, the desks were spaced out, each had gloves, hand sanitiser & tissues, with notebooks, a pen & highlighter in a plastic file.
There were only five seats in the public gallery and these are for the press as well. I wonder what would happen in a case where the family of the defendant and/or complainant wanted to attend, as well as the press and public - they would all have to fight over five chairs.
When I left at 11 o'clock none of the courts were in use, but there were plenty of HMCTS security staff standing around guarding the empty courtrooms.
To sum up, court 1 sat for 20 minutes dealing with cases remotely, that could've been done in 1 of the many empty courtrooms in the normal court estate. Crt 2 not sitting. Crt 3 dealt with by CVP not in the courtroom. Is hiring this extra space good use of taxpayers money? Ends
P.S. There was WiFi for each court in Prospero House, but where I was in court 1, you didn’t need it - my computer connected me to the internet using WiFi for @StarbucksUK, which I assume must be nearby.
