Shrewsbury Crown Court reopens with new restrictions
Shropshire's main court reopened this week for cases not involving juries, with new restrictions including extra time between cases, in a bid to beat a "very significant" backlog of cases.
Shrewsbury Crown Court has been closed to the public since the coronavirus lockdown began, with some cases going ahead remotely over telephone or meeting apps.
Today the court will make a "cautious" start under the strict new measures, though defendants should still expect to appear via video link.
In a note to court users, Judge Peter Barrie, one of the two senior judges who normally sits at Shrewsbury, set out some of the new measures in place as the lockdown is eased.
Only one of the two courtrooms will be open and areas have been marked out to help people maintain a 2m distance. The second court may be used for telephone hearings.
The public room will be cleaned between each case, there will be extra time between cases to minimise the numbers in the building and there will only be space for one member of the press and one person supporting a defendant. If others want to observe proceedings they should contact the court ahead of time.
Frustrating
Defendants and witnesses are welcome to wear masks as long as they can be heard clearly, but may be asked to remove them to be identified.
The hearings expected to now take place include pre-trial preparation hearings, appeals and hearings under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Judge Barrie wrote: "We have had a difficult and frustrating three months as a staffed court, closed to the public, because of the coronavirus pandemic.
"Many cases for trial have had an order for a mention and fix hearing to set a trial date in late June or July. I think it is unlikely that we will have been able to plan for a restart of jury trials as we had hoped, and these hearings may have to be relisted at a later date.
"It is impossible to predict the future. We cannot accommodate jury trials under the current restrictions, but there is a reasonable prospect that we will be able to start trials in one courtroom before too long.
"The backlog of cases is now very significant, and I can assure you all that we are doing everything we can to get back to working as near to normally as possible, as soon as we can."
