Jury Service At The Old Bailey

I have always liked the idea of jury service. Years of watching TV dramas in which court room scenes play a prominent part in the proceedings has led me to believe that I have an understanding of how the law works. I was interested to see if the fiction matched reality. But I’m well in to my fifties now and was resigned to the notion that I would miss out on the experience. So you can imagine my sense of excitement when I received a jury summons in the post. But this was not any old summons – it was for the Old Bailey! The name itself resonates doesn’t it? The Old Bailey looms large in our cultural consciousness. From folklore to good old Rumpole, the ‘Bailey’ has an almost mythical status. So was I right to be so excited? What’s it like to serve on a jury at the Central Criminal Court (to give the place its proper name)? Please read on to find out.

I should begin with a look at the history of the Old Bailey. There are dozens of books on the subject out there, and thousands of pages on the internet, so I will keep this short. The Old Bailey is located a couple of hundred yards west of St Paul’s Cathedral and is named after the street on which it sits. It was built next to Newgate Prison so as to allow for prisoners to be conveniently brought to the courtroom for their trials. The medieval courthouse was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666 and what we now know as The Old Bailey was built in 1673. The building was added to, refronted and redesigned over the centuries but as trials lengthened, and as the numbers of those seeking to watch proceedings increased, the courthouse building became increasingly inadequate. The adjacent Newgate Prison was by this time dilapidated and no longer held long-term prisoners. So in the 1860’s it was decided to pull down both buildings to make room for a larger one. After many delays, the new building, designed in the Neo-Baroque style by E.W. Mountford and built at a cost of £392,277, was finally opened by King Edward VII in 1907. It was lavishly fitted out and adorned with symbolic reminders to the public of its virtuous purpose. On top of the 67 foot high dome a 12 foot gold leaf statue was placed of a ‘lady of justice’ holding a sword in one hand and the scales of justice in the other. Over the main entrance to the building figures were placed representing fortitude, the recording angel, and truth, along with the carved inscription, “defend the children of the poor and punish the wrongdoer”. The building was heavily damaged by bombing in 1941 and rebuilt. A modern extension was added in 1972. There have been many famous trials at the Old Bailey over the years including those of Crippen, the Kray twins, Jeremy Thorpe, the Yorkshire Ripper, Ruth Ellis and Lord Haw-Haw.

I awoke on my first day of jury service (June 24th) with a great feeling of anticipation. On most days jurors are expected to be in the building by 9.30am for a 10am start. But on the first day we had to be there by 8.30am for registration. I set out much earlier than I needed to because I do hate being late for anything, and the thought of being late for the Old Bailey sent shivers down my spine! On arrival the first thing one notices is the security. After presenting my jury summons at the entrance (a little side door off the main road) my personal belongings were sent through a scanner while I was scanned by a hand held device. Eventually I was directed to the Jurors’ room on the 5th floor. This is a large functional room with a small cafeteria at one end. By 8.30am this room was packed with perhaps 200 new jurors. We were asked to line up so that we could present some proof of identity and to be registered. This took roughly an hour. Then that was it! We sat around waiting to be called. The Jury selection process is completely random at all stages. The initial summons is generated randomly from the electoral register and as each case comes up during the selected period, a random Jury is selected from the Jury pool. There is a further selection process which I will explain a little further on in this piece. As the morning progressed three juries were selected but my name wasn’t called. At around 3.30pm we were told that no further Juries would be selected that day and that we could go home. What an anti-climax! All that excitement and anticipation and all I had done was sit around all day in what looked like an archetypal 70’s cafeteria! I hadn’t really even spoken to anyone. But apparently this is very common. Trials are scheduled for certain dates but because of various factors - legal arguments, change of pleas etc – they are often delayed or even postponed. In fact over half the jurors in my pool were sent home without being selected for a trial. So all I could do was make my way home and hope for better luck in the morning.

So on to day two at the Old Bailey. I set out from home with slightly less excitement and anticipation than on the previous day. After the interminable journey through security I made my way to the jurors’ room. I feared another day of inactivity, but at least I had remembered to bring a book with me. However, at 10.30am an usher came in to the room and began calling names for the next Jury. To my relief and joy, my name was called! We were asked to make our way down to the lobby where the process would be explained to us. Once we were all together I couldn’t help but notice that there  were thirty of us. But hang on I thought, there are only twelve on a Jury. Could I miss out yet? The usher explained that the trial was expected to last for three to four weeks. We were then ushered in to the courtroom for Jury selection. I was a bit shocked to find that everyone was in place in court. The Judges, the barristers, even the defendants. Once again, the twelve person Jury would be selected randomly from the pool of thirty. The Judge explained that if called, a Juror could be excused if a holiday had been booked and paid for, or if a hospital appointment was scheduled. They could also be excused if they knew one of the accused or any of the witnesses in the case (all named by the Judge), or if they felt that the evidence to be examined would be too traumatic (the Judge outlined the nature of the crime and the evidence we would be seeing). Around a dozen names were called of which half were excused Jury service. Then my name was called! I took my place in the Jury box and waited for the selection process to be completed. Once we were all in place each Juror had to stand and take the oath or affirmation. It was at this point that the true nature of the responsibility involved in Jury service struck me. We were now responsible for decisions that would have a huge impact on many people’s lives. So, at 12.45pm the trial began. Then at one it stopped for lunch! Whatever is happening during the trial everything always stops for lunch.

I served as a Juror – performed my civic duty – on the Darren Pencille/Chelsea Mitchell trial. You may remember the fatal stabbing on a Surrey train back in January. I won’t write too much about the case here. It’s a matter of public record now and so if you are interested the full details of the trial are available. But I will say that the case wasn’t quite as straight forward as the media presented. It took two weeks for the defence and prosecution barristers to present their cases. Generally speaking, it was fascinating to watch the wheels of justice in motion. But that’s not to say that there weren’t periods when the proceedings were extremely tedious. At other times it was literally edge of the seat tension – particularly during some of the more combative cross examinations. When all of the evidence has been presented the jury retire to reach their verdict. This is the one part of the trial we are not allowed to talk about once it has reached its conclusion. But I will say that my fellow jurors took their responsibilities very seriously and considered all the evidence in an open minded and thorough way. I did say to the group that I was proud to have served with them, and that my faith in the jury system was reaffirmed by my experience.

It was my job as foreman to stand and deliver the verdict. I must admit to being very nervous at that moment – my mouth went dry. We found each of the defendants guilty.

I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of serving as a Juror at the Old Bailey. It was fascinating to watch the workings of a major trial at such close quarters, and to take part in the judicial process. I took my responsibilities extremely seriously and can honestly say that every member of the Jury did likewise. My faith and confidence in the Jury system remains very high after the many hours we spent considering the evidence.

If you got this far, thanks for reading!

Barry