Huge backlog of court cases
Coronavirus lockdown leads to 5,000 trials being postponed in city
THE coronavirus lockdown has caused an unprecedented backlog of 5,000 cases at Birmingham’s crown and magistrates’ courts, a police chief has revealed.
High-profile trials and hearings were halted across the country for fear of spreading Covid-19 in often unventilated courtrooms back in March.
The justice system is now starting to reopen, with some murder trials resuming in the West Midlands last week for the first time in four months.
But the shutdown is set to cause huge delays for the criminal justice system, with cases piling up.
Mark Payne, newly promoted Assistant Chief Constable at West Midlands Police, revealed the scale of the backlog which he said would inevitably impact on those accused of crimes and the victims.
He said: “The courts have shut down through this process and we’ve had murder trials stopped half way through where all people had given their evidence.
“Obviously that means for the suspects they stop in prison on remand whilst that is happening, which obviously is difficult as you’re innocent until proven guilty.
“We’ve then got to manage all of these murder trials that have been pending over a very tight period of time.
“Ordinarily, we’d be running two or four murder trials at the same time in different courts around the same area. What this means is that we’re having to spread ourselves out.”
He added: “The courts for very good reasons are now starting to restart all these trials all at the same time. That means we’re having to make sure, for example, we don’t have opposing gangs in court at the same time... because that’s a big risk. “But then in our volume (crime) areas we’ve now got the backlog. I think we are up to about 5,000 cases, people who have been charged and not yet able to stand before a court. That will be got through but
it’s going to take some time. What it means is that people who were charged with lower level offences might find their case at the back of that queue so both the victim and the suspect face a very long time before we’re able to understand the impact for them.” ACC Payne also said the way police deal with suspects has changed because of Covid – particularly because of health threats to officers and others.
He said: “There’s been a huge logistical operation to make our buildings safe, make our operating practices as safe as they can be, to get hold of PPE.
“We’ve had to do straightforward things like redesigning how we hold people in custody. Lots of people have come into custody claiming to have Covid, we’ve seen an increase in people spitting at police officers and breathing heavily on them saying they’ve got Covid.
“We’ve had things we hadn’t quite anticipated like solicitors not wanting to come into custody blocks for fear of catching Covid. So we’ve had to design ways that solicitors could dial in remotely using new technology.
“We’ve had to use new technology to get witness statements because we can’t go into people’s houses.
“We’ve tried to do it for years and years, and in the space of about three weeks we completely transformed the way that we were able to operate. There’s been lots of reorganisation and as a result of that, some of that innovation will be with us to stay because it just makes sense and is something we’ve tried to do for years.”
A HM Courts and Tribunals spokesperson said: “Jury trials have resumed at Birmingham Crown Court and it is hoped all courts will be reopened by the end of July.
“We worked with the judiciary to keep justice going safely during the pandemic including prioritising urgent cases such as those involving domestic abuse and swiftly increasing remote hearings.”