Trial could see inquest hearings going digital
Jury case is selected for pilot of new virtual technology
‘There was no need to use paper at any stage of the hearing’
Paperless inquests are expected in full from this spring after the first ever digital-only hearing took place.
Kent and Medway Coroners Court is now rolling out the system for use on all jury inquests from this month and for all inquests from April 1.
The system allows participation in person and remotely and allows people to stay safely apart during the pandemic. The system was used for the first time to support a complex jury inquest held in Maidstone at the end of last year. It was the first time that a jury inquest in the UK has been conducted entirely digitally.
The court is using a service called CaseLines by the multinational media corporation Thomson Reuters.
This is a court exhibit and evidence sharing platform. Inquests in this county are held in Maidstone, at the Archbishop’s Palace, County Hall and the Shepway Centre in
Oxford Road.
But Kent and Medway Coroners Court began its digital transformation last April.
The changes meant all relevant parties, including the presiding coroner, relevant legal representatives and jury members,
could engage and follow proceedings using individual iPads and the large screens placed in the hearing room. Time could also be saved that is usually spent printing, photocopying and manually sorting and redacting bundles. The court estimates that during the hearing in November and December it saved 46 hours of staff time.
Angie Sanders, service development officer at KMCC, said: “It would not have been possible to complete this inquest in such a short time frame had we not adopted CaseLines.
“There was no need to use paper at any stage of the hearing – crucial given the strict coronavirus regulations in place.” Without this system the court would have had to equip each juror with up to seven lever arch files of case notes and evidence. The technology also came into its own when travel restrictions meant a QC could not return to the UK to attend the hearing in person. Using CaseLines, the QC was able to attend the rest of the hearing via video link, which stopped the case being adjourned.
The government has said initial findings show the South African Covid variant was not detected during surge testing carried out in Maidstone last month.
The huge operation, which saw 9,633 tests delivered in three days and emergency service workers going door-to-door to drop off swabs, finished on February 4. But the results are yet to be published, five weeks later. It was in response to a worrying case of the South African variant being found in the ME15 postcode, which couldn’t be linked to international travel or other variant cases. A Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) spokesman told the KM this week that initial findings show no “variant of concern” cases have been found, but the data is being checked before finally being made public. Last month, Cllr Martin Cox, leader of Maidstone Borough Council (MBC), slammed the government for the delay in sequencing, as only around
a quarter of the 400 positive tests had been analysed for the strain after 10 days. He said he had been told the process would only take four.
Cllr Cox fears the delay will affect the people’s attitude towards the government. He said: “I think the public
support and willingness to help will slip away with every day.” He also worries it could put residents off going to get asymptomatic tests, which MBC is encouraging to keep rates low. Surge testing has been carried out in numerous other areas of the country, such as Surrey,
Worcester and Liverpool, in response to South African variants of Covid-19 being discovered.
According to the government, on average the process of genome sequencing is 10 days, but it is a complex process and this timeline can vary.
When you drive into Maidstone from the A20 or the A229 you will be greeted with signs saying ‘Welcome to the County Town of Kent’, but does anybody actually know what the title means? A county town is defined as the administrative capital, selected because of its central role in local government. With Kent County Council (KCC) residing in Sessions House in County Hall, this fact in a nutshell sums up why Maidstone holds the title.
Perhaps the more interesting part comes from the historical events which led to Maidstone getting the designation.
Although the title is older, it was first used in its current formal sense in Kent around 132 years ago, when county councils were first established in England under the Local Government Act of 1889.
At the time Kent’s newly formed administrative council was looking for a home. Maidstone already had the prison which opened in 1830, the Royal West Kent Regiment from 1881, and the police headquarters which arrived in 1857. Adding the county council seemed an easy and practical fit. Maidstone had become a thriving town, which had expanded so much in size and population, that it had overtaken the likes of Canterbury, which would have been its closest rival to the title.
But it was only because geography, geology and the Romans that Maidstone became the power hub ideal for all these locations.
John Bunyard, the author of Old Bunyard’s Kent Pride, an online archive containing hundreds of stories sharing tales of Kent’s past explains: “Canterbury might have been chosen instead. It is now our
We’re used to talking about Maidstone and referring to it as the County Town. But have many of us stopped to consider what it really means to carry the name and why our town was selected for the honour? Liane Castle delves back into Kent’s archives to find out
only city and it was the capital of the Kingdom of Kent from the 6th century.
“It had been a major Roman town and the capital of the Anglican Church but by a process of accretion, Maidstone had grown in importance,
knocking Canterbury off the top spot.”
Accretion is when one institution moves to a town which then attracts another, and so on.
He continued: “Maidstone started gaining power in
Roman times because of its geology.
“Most of Kent is chalk and clay, but running right through the middle there’s Kentish ragstone which is good for building with, and conveniently that’s where Maidstone lies.
“When the Romans arrived they wanted to fortify London and the obvious place to dig was next to the River Medway. “They built quarries around Maidstone and over time the industry became something of a magnet.”
Because of its location in the middle of Kent, and next to the river, Maidstone became a handy place to get things out to sea as well as up to London, making it a prime location for the paper making, brick making and brewing industries which later arrived. Population growth continued and Maidstone grew bigger, while Canterbury was suffering because history was leaving it behind, especially when the Wantsum Channel separating Thanet from the rest of Kent dried up.
Another historical link that gave Maidstone power was Penenden Heath.
In the Anglo Saxon days it was a tribal meeting centre because it was an easy to get to, big open space near a river where everybody could camp. It was famously where they held trials and executions, so it became a major civic centre in Kent.
After the prison was built, which at the time was considered the most advanced in the county, hangings were eventually moved out of sight, but the presence of the county assizes until their abolition in 1972 confirmed Maidstone’s status as the legal centre of Kent. After centuries of building up the town into an administrative and economic centre, it seems almost ironic many of the places that earned Maidstone the title are now slowly drifting away.
The Kent County Lunatic Asylum, later named Oakwood Hospital, which served the whole of Kent from Dover to Deptford from 1833, closed in 1994.
Invicta Park Barracks is due to close in 2027, and now both the council and the constabulary are selling up.
The force has been based at the site in Sutton Road since 1940 but bosses say it is no longer providing the “best possible value for money”.
The chief officer team relocated in September to the North Kent Police Station in Northfleet but it’s not yet known where remaining staff will be placed.
Last year came news Kent County Council is considering quitting Sessions House, after more than a century, with about 1,100 members of staff potentially affected.
But, despite the moves, Mr Bunyard believes it is unlikely the town will ever lose its title unless the county council relocates to another town entirely.
He added: “Maidstone is holding on by the fingertips.
“But I don’t think it will ever lose its title as long as the county council remains. “I think it’s more likely that the term will fall into disuse.”
An outdoor LGBT+ festival is set to go ahead in Maidstone this summer.
It will be held on Friday, June 25 - just days after all remaining coronavirus restrictions are expected to be lifted.
Initially pencilled in for May, it has been organised by Glitterbomb in partnership with Maidstone Borough Council, and will be held at Mote Park.
The festival comes before Canterbury Pride, which also is set to return in 2021 on September 11 after it was wiped from last year’s calendar by the pandemic. Since its introduction to the city in 2015, Canterbury Pride has become one of the city’s boldest and biggest crowd-pleasers and its last event in 2019 attracted about 20,000 people. Fashion consultant and TV
presenter Gok Wan joined the last event along with singer Nadine Coyle from Girls Aloud. The vibrant scenes now mark a worldwide approach to celebrating the diversity of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, but everyone is invited to join the party. There are several held across the county, including Margate, Dover, Faversham, Folkestone,
Sheppey, Tunbridge Wells, Gravesham and Medway. Maidstone’s re-scheduled event - which boasts of being ‘the biggest in Kent’ - is believed to be the first festival of its kind in the borough, promising drag queens, DJs and dancers as well as a ‘huge’ stage, street food stalls and bars.
It is not yet known if a Pride parade will also take place in the town as they do in other areas to coincide with the Mote Park gathering.
Stephen Sullivan from Glitterbomb said: “We are very excited to be holding this LGBT+ festival at Mote Park, Maidstone this summer. We’ve been working hard to put together a line-up which will excite the LGBT community and its allies. “Hopefully it will be a great night that will also coincide with the end of lockdown restrictions that week.”
The line-up is due to be announced tonight (Thursday).