London Court Experience

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I visited Canterbury Crown Court on the 20th October 2015 at 12.08pm. As I approached the grand building I felt both excited and nervous. I had a fragmented idea about what I was about to experience due to previously visiting the Supreme Court in London a few years ago to view the Lundy murders hearing. However, I was still rather sceptical about what I was about to experience. I had pre-conceived court expectations due to watching television dramas such as “Silk” and “Accused”. For example I expected to have to go through rigorous security checks, watch prison guards forcefully lead defendants around the court and for the courtroom to be large and daunting.
The media tends to provide individuals with a false representation of reality (Kidd-Hewitt 2002) and this was the case with my court experience. As I walked through the entrance of the Crown Court I was greeted by two male court guards who seemed welcoming. I had to walk through a security screen to check I wasn’t carrying any harmful items and then had my bag searched. This process was smooth and relaxed, different to the stressful experience I had expected.
Once I had cleared the security procedure I was faced with the decision of what courtroom …show more content…

The attack left the victim with severe open wounds on the left side of the face. Unexpectedly, the use of CCTV footage accompanied the other photo evidence presented in court. However the footage was poor and unclear, resulting in a continuous cycle of question and answer to make sense of the footage. I was surprised at how significant the CCTV footage was to this case as it was repeatedly played in the courtroom. It began to grow rather tedious and repetitive; however it was a crucial component to discovering the actuality of the events that occurred the night of the

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