Central Criminal Court (Old Bailey) live update. 1245pm Guidance given to all criminal barristers Juries all sent home Defendants in custody cells been returned to prison remand Barristers advised to return to court Thursday unless told otherwise Barristers needing to collect keys, personal items to wait outside court for when a safe escorted re entry permitted. UK power preventing re entry. Five separate explosions at 1030am from one of the two power plants supplying the Court building were heard from the back of the court building as trials began or barristers were in judges’ chambers ahead of sitting. Smoke was then seen from the rear of the court building. 17 courtrooms listed to sit today for trial.

Criticising the “appalling” number of rape trials affected by the lack of judges, Peter Collier KC – who sat as a judge at Leeds Crown Court for 11 years until 2018 – said that adjourning rape trials on the day would “never” have happened during his tenure, “other than because some key witness had died, or something absolutely dramatic”. independent.co.uk/news/uk/ho… “I can remember, once, a rape case got adjourned, and there were questions asked at the highest level – the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service] were absolutely spitting tacks. But it happens now all the time. Words fail me, really, because it was so predictable,” he said, writing in The Independent. According to Mr Collier, the problem dates back to 2010, when the Tory-Lib Dem government began dramatically cutting the number of sitting court days, which have decreased from 110,000 a year to just 86,000 in 2020. The resulting reduction in the size of the criminal bar means that – despite ministers’ efforts to once again increase sitting days – there are now not enough barristers to work on cases and sit as part-time judges.”

According to analysis by the Criminal Bar Association and The Independent, a record 51 trials – 10 of which were for rape and 19 for violence – were delayed by judge shortages between April and June, more than double the quarterly average of 21 in the five years prior to 2020, when the onset of the Covid pandemic prevented the courts from sitting in the usual way. Meanwhile, nearly a third of the 100 crown court trials without a judge in the first six months of 2023 involved sexual offences, analysis of the official figures found. This is more than double the six-month average in the years prior to 2020. independent.co.uk/news/uk/ho…