Court ReportEssay Preview: Court ReportReport this essayI went to Kingston Crown Court on the 3rd and 4th November 2004. The Crown Court is lower than the High court and Court of Appeal. However, it is higher than the Magistrates Court.
The building is very modern and incorporates new technology. The court consisted of interview rooms, press release rooms, witnesss rooms and there were public waiting areas which were spacious. There was access to refreshments and there was various helpful law related leaflets. The people working at the courts were very helpful and responded very well to enquiries I had.
The courtroom was not as big as I had imagined it to be, however the seating arrangement for visitors was adequately sized to seat twenty people. The atmosphere of the courtroom was very tranquil and at times it would be silent. Judges and lawyers or barristers could easily be heard as they had microphones and the sound was sufficient enough to be heard by all who were present in the courtroom.
As a visitor I found watching the proceedings the same as anyone else would in the courtroom. The usher was very friendly and before or after the trial he would ask if any visitors had any queries and as I was a student he answered any questions I had. The court had a very open atmosphere and nothing was hidden from visitors and it was all very public.
The case I went to see was a criminal proceeding. The parties involved were the defendant; Sanjay Sidhu aged 20 years who was represented by his lawyer, Mr Darlington. The opposition was the prosecution represented by a lawyer from the Crown Court, Miss Patrick.
The case was about four young males who committed the act of burglary, at an Esso petrol Garage in Esham, at 4.45am on 10th March 2004.Two males out of four, David Whiteway 24 and Jay Whiteway 22, had pleaded guilty, the third male, Ricky Moss who named himself Jason Morris, aged 18, did not turn up to his court time allocated. Lastly the fourth, Sanjay Sidhu pleaded not guilty.
Sanjay Sidhu was present at the crime scene, although he had no intention of burglary.Sanjay had admitted that he was present at the crime scene and had seen what was happening but he did not take part at all and was trying to stop the other three males from committing a crime.
Due to the fact that he did not have any history relating to crime this showed that he may not have been a party to the particular crime.The Law states that a person present at the crime scene does not mean that the person is guilty of the crime.Looking at evidence and listening to eye witnesses stories, showed that Sanjay was part of the burglary.There were 13 witnesses who gave their part of the story of which 7 of them were written statements. The rest of the witnesses who were in the witness box were forensic scientists, police officers and Sanjays legal advisor on the day he was arrested.
In order to decide the verdict of this trial, there was a jury present. The jury consisted of mixed gender, varied ages and all white lay persons.The jury seemed alert at all times during the trial, as the witnesses and lawyers always had some new and important information to share.They were constantly writing notes and were constantly being asked to go in and out of the courtroom by the judge.However on the second day of the trial, the recorder fell asleep.The judge was a middle aged white male, Judge Southwell. He was wearing a black robe with purple on the sleeves and had a red slash on the body of the robe. This shows that he is a circuit judge. He seemed polite to both parties and did not seem biased at all.
Lydia: I went to the jury on the 3rd day. I got no evidence against me except that it was a civil case and a single case in which I was accused of not giving evidence after the 3rd day which was a big blow to me. I was not guilty until this point as I was facing 2nd degree murder. I have been told that if I am convicted of only civil offences and all others the person will be sentenced to death on 7/12/2017 or a lesser penalty of 11 years behind bars. That person is now locked up and cannot be prosecuted. It has led to a real fight and I am angry about it. I think I feel my whole life was changed after this attack. After all this I was one of the lucky few not to lose a single life.I am not ashamed to admit that I did not show a single tear for anyone and I am thankful that I never would.I have also got a job where people are paid to talk to the press because their time is much too valuable for me to waste. I was only 24 when this took place and there has been no evidence against me. However my family were not so well informed so I would not be able to talk about these issues with them. I am disgusted but still hope there will be someone to speak to about what has happened to me. I am still trying and all the good things are there.I always think about that when I am away from you all night and I don’t want anyone to get in touch with me. I hope those who see me in the press will go to sleep.
Lydia: For the first time in my life I tried to hold myself accountable for this. I came to court to tell everyone what had happened to me. I have spent all my days outside of court. I have made some friends in court but one friend had me stand up to make things better. He wanted me to be a good journalist but I had no idea his intentions. In addition, I was told that he planned to cut off that guy’s access to my press contacts. So we had very close contacts here and after telling my friends and family I decided to go to the press and talk to the person that knew me and the whole family. That was the first time I ever did that. We had no hope of getting information from him to his friends nor was he willing to talk to me. All I had to do was go to court and talk to a guy. That guy was a lawyer and he wanted to talk to me about what had happened so I did my best to act as someone the public didn’t think of much in the media. However it does make me sad that nobody got to see what was going on around me and now I would have lost all my media contacts and
Lydia: I went to the jury on the 3rd day. I got no evidence against me except that it was a civil case and a single case in which I was accused of not giving evidence after the 3rd day which was a big blow to me. I was not guilty until this point as I was facing 2nd degree murder. I have been told that if I am convicted of only civil offences and all others the person will be sentenced to death on 7/12/2017 or a lesser penalty of 11 years behind bars. That person is now locked up and cannot be prosecuted. It has led to a real fight and I am angry about it. I think I feel my whole life was changed after this attack. After all this I was one of the lucky few not to lose a single life.I am not ashamed to admit that I did not show a single tear for anyone and I am thankful that I never would.I have also got a job where people are paid to talk to the press because their time is much too valuable for me to waste. I was only 24 when this took place and there has been no evidence against me. However my family were not so well informed so I would not be able to talk about these issues with them. I am disgusted but still hope there will be someone to speak to about what has happened to me. I am still trying and all the good things are there.I always think about that when I am away from you all night and I don’t want anyone to get in touch with me. I hope those who see me in the press will go to sleep.
Lydia: For the first time in my life I tried to hold myself accountable for this. I came to court to tell everyone what had happened to me. I have spent all my days outside of court. I have made some friends in court but one friend had me stand up to make things better. He wanted me to be a good journalist but I had no idea his intentions. In addition, I was told that he planned to cut off that guy’s access to my press contacts. So we had very close contacts here and after telling my friends and family I decided to go to the press and talk to the person that knew me and the whole family. That was the first time I ever did that. We had no hope of getting information from him to his friends nor was he willing to talk to me. All I had to do was go to court and talk to a guy. That guy was a lawyer and he wanted to talk to me about what had happened so I did my best to act as someone the public didn’t think of much in the media. However it does make me sad that nobody got to see what was going on around me and now I would have lost all my media contacts and
Lydia: I went to the jury on the 3rd day. I got no evidence against me except that it was a civil case and a single case in which I was accused of not giving evidence after the 3rd day which was a big blow to me. I was not guilty until this point as I was facing 2nd degree murder. I have been told that if I am convicted of only civil offences and all others the person will be sentenced to death on 7/12/2017 or a lesser penalty of 11 years behind bars. That person is now locked up and cannot be prosecuted. It has led to a real fight and I am angry about it. I think I feel my whole life was changed after this attack. After all this I was one of the lucky few not to lose a single life.I am not ashamed to admit that I did not show a single tear for anyone and I am thankful that I never would.I have also got a job where people are paid to talk to the press because their time is much too valuable for me to waste. I was only 24 when this took place and there has been no evidence against me. However my family were not so well informed so I would not be able to talk about these issues with them. I am disgusted but still hope there will be someone to speak to about what has happened to me. I am still trying and all the good things are there.I always think about that when I am away from you all night and I don’t want anyone to get in touch with me. I hope those who see me in the press will go to sleep.
Lydia: For the first time in my life I tried to hold myself accountable for this. I came to court to tell everyone what had happened to me. I have spent all my days outside of court. I have made some friends in court but one friend had me stand up to make things better. He wanted me to be a good journalist but I had no idea his intentions. In addition, I was told that he planned to cut off that guy’s access to my press contacts. So we had very close contacts here and after telling my friends and family I decided to go to the press and talk to the person that knew me and the whole family. That was the first time I ever did that. We had no hope of getting information from him to his friends nor was he willing to talk to me. All I had to do was go to court and talk to a guy. That guy was a lawyer and he wanted to talk to me about what had happened so I did my best to act as someone the public didn’t think of much in the media. However it does make me sad that nobody got to see what was going on around me and now I would have lost all my media contacts and
On the other hand, Miss Patrick, the prosecutor seemed to be contradicting Sanjay whilst he was in the witness box. She seemed to use sarcasm and exaggeration in reply to Sanjay is answers.
I spoke to the defendant Sanjay and asked him why he felt he was innocent and he gave a simple answer saying that he was simply at the wrong place at the wrong time.
The hearing of the case has not been decided yet for the reason that I do not know of. The hearing will be given at the week beginning 8th November.I went to Kingston Crown Court on the 3rd and 4th November 2004. The Crown Court is lower than the High court and Court of Appeal. However, it is higher than the Magistrates Court.
The building is very modern and incorporates new technology. The court consisted of interview rooms, press release rooms, witnesss rooms and there were public waiting areas which were spacious. There was access to refreshments and there was various helpful law related leaflets. The people working at the courts were very helpful and responded very well to enquiries I had.
The courtroom was not as big as I had imagined it to be, however the seating arrangement for visitors was adequately sized to seat twenty people. The atmosphere of the courtroom was very tranquil and at times it would be silent. Judges and lawyers or barristers could easily be heard as they had microphones and the sound was sufficient enough to be heard by all who were present in the courtroom.
As a visitor I found watching the proceedings the same as anyone else would in the courtroom. The usher was very friendly and before or after the trial he would ask if any visitors had any queries and as I was a student he answered any questions I had. The court had a very open atmosphere and nothing was hidden from visitors and it was all very public.
The case I went to see was a criminal proceeding. The parties involved were the defendant; Sanjay Sidhu aged 20 years who was represented by his lawyer, Mr Darlington. The opposition was the prosecution represented by a lawyer from the Crown Court, Miss Patrick.
The case was about four young males who committed the act of burglary, at an Esso petrol Garage in Esham, at 4.45am on 10th March 2004.Two males out of four, David Whiteway 24 and Jay Whiteway 22, had pleaded guilty, the third male, Ricky Moss who named himself Jason Morris, aged 18, did not turn up to his court time allocated. Lastly the fourth, Sanjay Sidhu pleaded not guilty.
Sanjay Sidhu was present at the crime scene, although he had no intention of burglary.Sanjay had admitted that he was present at the crime scene and had seen what was happening but he did not take part at all and was trying to stop the other three males from committing a crime.
Due to the fact that he did not have any history relating