Magistrates’ court volunteer Alex Kimmons

CAMPAIGNERS are searching for volunteers who will sit in the magistrates’ court at Highbury Corner and make sure hearings are fair.

CourtWatch is worried that what goes on inside is no longer being scrutinised.

Cases are heard by a panel of magistrates or district judges.

Alex Kimmons, who lives in Finsbury Park and works for Transform Justice, a wider organisation of which CourtWatch is a part, said: “Some data is collected on what happens in magistrate courts, but it’s very surface level. And people aren’t in the public galleries any more – the only things that make the news rounds are the serious, sensational stories, but the type of stuff about what’s happening to people in my neighbourhood, that understanding is lost.”

Magistrates’ courts are usually the scene for the first stage in a criminal hearing, where a decision is made over where a trial should be heard. Defendants who plead guilty to minor crimes can be sentenced there, although often in a long-drawn out processes.

Ms Kimmons has volunteered to go to Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court and observe the proceedings for CourtWatch.

“The three magistrates were really compassionate in a few cases involving addiction and homelessness. The prosecution was compassionate as well,” she said. “They were all in agreement that what these people needed was not to be further pushed down – fined when they don’t have a home, pushed further into addiction – so, they agreed that the night these people had already served in prison was punishment enough.”

Ms Kimmons added: “In other cases, not so much. The same prosecutor, the same bench, different defence. It was a case about a black teenage boy who was stopped and searched by the police because he looked nervous in an area that was heavily policed at the time, they found Class-B drugs and a knife. This kid had already been a victim of knife crime, and his defence said he knew knife crime was awful. The kid was crying when the hearing started. When they read out his age and I found out he was a teenager, it really brought to life those things you hear about the adultification of black boys, and neighbourhoods being over policed.”

Research done by Transform Justice showed that nine out of 10 children held on remand in London are black.

All volunteers will be given training beforehand on what to expect when they go to court, and given a form to fill in that looks for information on what they’re seeing. This information will go back to Transform Justice for a research project on the workings of magistrate courts.

Ms Kimmons wants to encourage other volunteers to come forward. “Magistrate courts are the courts that make judgements about the most day-to-day things going on in our communities. They make judgements on petty theft, criminal damage, domestic abuse cases. These are the things that are happening to our neighbours on our street.

“It’s so important that we have an eye on what’s going on in these courtrooms. Some people will never have visited a magistrate court, and it’s a part of community life that some people would never have seen.”