Law Weblog

A trial with no jury first for 400 years – next week

Saturday 9 January 2010 at 7:42 am | In News | Post Comment Defence lawyers are preparing to challenge the first criminal trial in England and Wales for 400 years to go ahead without a jury. The case is expected to be heard next week.

Lawyers for four men accused of being part of a gang that stole £1.75 million in a raid at Heathrow will seek to adjourn the trial and go before the Supreme Court.

The decision that there should be a judge-only trial was made by the Lord Chief Justice and two other judges in an historic ruling at the Court of Appeal in June after claims of jury nobbling.  The jury-less trial is the first of its kind under the provisions contained in the Criminal Justice Act 2003 to prevent jury nobbling. The only other judge-only trials for serious cases, known as Diplock trials, have been in Northern Ireland.

The trial will go ahead before Mr Justice Treacy in the Royal Courts of Justice, rather than a criminal venue such as the Old Bailey,
A series of special arrangements and procedures are being devised for the trial because of the absence of a jury. The judge is expected to follow some of the procedures developed in the Diplock courts. First, the trial is expected to be far shorter and is listed for three months, whereas the last trial to collapse had already run for six months and reached only the end of the prosecution case and the judge will have available before him all the witness statements–juries have no such access.
Although there will not be the huge and costly security arrangements that would have been in place to protect a jury, the judge will probably have enhanced security.