24 June 2020
How video hearings broke justice and stripped
people of their rights
[…] The problems caused during the
pandemic can be exacerbated when cases involve a person suspected to have
Covid-19. People have ‘appeared’ in court through the small window of a cell
door. Their heads barely visible and voices barely intelligible thanks to the
echoing hallway and poor connection as they’re far from the Wi-Fi router.
In one case a defendant with limited English
who had coughed on an officer appeared through his cell window, English was his
second language and he had no interpreter. The connection was poor and so was
the audio. His solicitor in court couldn’t remind him of her advice. He chose a
jury trial before saying: “I don’t understand this, that, crown court,” then
asking for his solicitor, which the judge refused: “It’s not a matter for your
solicitor, you elected to go to crown court.”
“It’s just not justice, it’s a farce,”
says Gibbs, who observed that case from the public gallery in May. “What I’m
worried about from a justice point of view is that defendants are not getting a
fair hearing and that they’re not getting an option to appear in person.” […]
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