521 cases in Crown Court outstanding

THE number of Crown Court cases outstanding in Northern Ireland has passed 500 during the pandemic.

The total increased by almost 200 and hearings have been “inevitably delayed” since last March’s lockdown, Stormont’s Justice Department said.

Extra space has been acquired at the International Convention Centre at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast and plans on facilitating other further business are being developed.

Victim Support NI chief Geraldine Hanna said: “Victims were regularly waiting for two years or more for their case to reach court, with the more serious cases taking even longer. During this time, the seeming lack of movement in the quest for justice can lead to serious issues with mental health.

“Our fear is more victims may choose to drop out of the criminal justice journey in order to recover from the impact of crime and move on with their lives.” Prior to the

March 2020 lockdown, there were 352 Crown Court cases outstanding.

Notwithstanding August’s restart of jury trials, this figure has now risen to 521.

At the time of the first lockdown, cases would have been at stages including arraignment, case management, trial and sentencing.

They continued to be managed by judges throughout the period.

The Justice Department added: “As jury trials did not resume until August 2020, cases were inevitably delayed by the impact of Covid-19 but it is not possible to quantify the figure.”