Having exhausted my time sitting at the press bench in court, I have decided to undertake a law degree with the view of earning some real money and become a solicitor. At the moment my nose is buried so deeply in textbooks I feel like I have sinusitis but hopefully I’ll find some time to attempt to pen some ‘funnies’ on here. Until next time my dutiful follower(s?).
1) The difference between logging off from and shutting down a computer
2) How to use facebook.
3) How easy it must be to pass the bar.
New business cards!
http://www.mirror.co.uk/2011/06/29/teen-girls-googled-ways-to-kill-grandad-so-mum-could-get-inheritance-115875-23234008/
Awful trial with extremely young defendants. Section 39 (CYPAct) orders are in place banning publication of the kids, or family members who share the name. Hopefully this will be lifted upon conviction.
Check out the pics from police in the next post.
Damage caused to victim - pretty horrible. Interesting trial though as the jury bundle is electronic so evidential images like these are displayed on large screen throughout the court room.
Really interesting notes from The Law Essay Professional on the pros and cons of the presence of juries in the justice system.
I have never personally been overly enamoured with this arm of the law. However it almost seems futile to make any stand against them as the alternative - jury-less trials such as R versus Twomey et al - isn’t practicable in perpetuity. I’ve seen jurors who can’t speak enough English to be sworn in; jurors wearing sunglasses inside the court room to disguise napping; and jurors who have admitted to me they didn’t know whether to acquit two co-defendants so sent down one and exonerated the other. Recently a juror was jailed for chatting to a defendant in an ongoing trial over facebook. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jun/16/facebook-juror-jailed-for-eight-months This has brought to the surface concern about whether it is practicable for jurors to avoid coming across information about an ongoing trial. In a world spinning on an axis of social media and online information, it is growing more and more difficult and less and less realistic to keep jurors offline, especially throughout lengthy trials that can last for several months. I don’t have the answers but I think it is important to first ask the right questions. How can we strike a balance between ensuring democratic jurisdiction and contempt-free jurisprudence?
http://www.birminghammail.net/news/top-stories/2011/06/15/birmingham-hit-squad-jailed-after-being-hired-to-shoot-man-for-500-97319-28881304/
By me @ Birmingham Mail. So glad this trial is over - commute to Hove Crown Court was driving me mad.
If you want a laugh - have a look at one of the defendants’ (one of the pair acquitted) you tube vids. Type in Madmanski. He’s an amateur MC. Hilarious. Some of the clips…heavily edited of course…were played in court.
A fork lift truck driver shot a young man with a gun he found in a park after a car deal between the men went sour, a court has heard.
David Martin told Hove Crown Court last week that victim Jaspal Sandhu, who sustained injuries to his legs and torso after shotgun cartridges splintered his front door, had sold him a car and then stolen it a few days later.
Mr Sandhu, who was watching television on the night of the shooting (August 3 2009), claimed earlier in his evidence that he had never sold his car to anyone of the five defendants currently standing trial for conspiracy to murder.
Prosecutor Bobbie Cheema told jurors that Martin, along with co-defendants Daniel Martin, Malachi Halstead, Adrian Thomas and Delroy Hare, had plotted to kill Mr Sandhu and had been paid several hundred pounds to do so.
Giving evidence last Thursday, Martin said: “I didn’t want to injure him, I just wanted to inconvenience him by shooting up his door.”
He told judge Michael Lawson QC that on Wednesday July 7 last year he had seen Mr Sandhu in Birmingham sitting in car that had a ’for sale’ sign in the window.
“He [Mr Sandhu] said he was selling the car for £650 but I knocked him down to £500.
“I said if he can drop me off at my house I can get the money and we can do a deal.”
Martin claimed he handed over £500 in cash to the man, who went by the name of Raj, and was given a receipt and MOT certificate.
Two days later, the court heard, Martin discovered the car had disappeared. He called the number on the receipt, which was unreachable and so Martin made plans to travel down to the address given to him by the former owner of the Renault Laguna - Park Way, Crawley.
Miss Cheema, who alleged Martin’s story was a “pack of lies”, told jurors he had not asked his nephew, Daniel Martin, for a lift down to Crawley until the very end of July.
She also asked Martin why his story under oath was different to the statement he gave to police officers after his arrest in March this year.
Earlier in the trial, which has lasted four weeks so far, the court heard a recording of Martin’s police interview in which he claimed Hare had been hired to form a hit squad and had told Martin he would be paid £500 to scare 29-year-old Mr Sandhu.
“All Delroy said I gotta do is put out this guy’s windows and I can get £500,” claimed David Martin in his police interview. “He took me down to this job. He said ‘Put out the windows. Better still, knock on the door and show him the piece. Then shoot out the door‘.”
Under cross-examination by Miss Cheema, Martin said: “The police told me the others had grassed me up so I was just getting my own back.”
Mr Sandhu was shot through the door of his semi-detached home in Park Way, Pound Hill, just before 11pm on August 3 last year. He had been watching television while his sick wife Jaspreet, who suffers from an iron deficiency, was asleep upstairs.
David Martin, who was originally charged with attempted murder and arrested after appearing on Crimewatch, said: “I didn‘t attempt to murder anyone. It was just to put a shot through his window or put one through his door. It was just to frighten him.”
Five men are standing trial after pleading not guilty to conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit GBH and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.
They are David Martin, 43, his nephew Daniel Martin, 31, Delroy Hare, 48, Adrian Thomas 29 and Malachi Halstead, 29.
The trial continues.
