Cinemas to host jurors as trials go remote

Cinemas in Dundee and Fife will host jurors from early next year to allow more criminal trials to be held.

Courts in Scotland are facing a massive backlog of cases as social distancing has prevented sheriff courts from holding jury trials.

Now, cinemas are being used as remote jury centres, to allow jurors to watch evidence on screens.

It follows a successful trial of holding High Court trials in Edinburgh this way.

Odeon cinemas in Dundee and Dunfermline will host jurors from January, the Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service said.

D u n d e e’s Douglas Road branch will be used as a remote centre for the city’s sheriff court on January 25, expanding to include Perth from February 8.

In Fife, Dunfermline’s Odeon will host jurors for Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court from February 1 and Fa l k i r k the following week.

It forms plans to have a remote jury centre in all six of Scotland’s sheriffdoms, with the first sheriff trials due to be held in Glasgow and Edinburgh next week.

The new centres will have capacity for up to 18 jury trials to be held at once.

Jur y trials were suspended in March and courts now face a backlog of 1,800 cases, estimated to reach 2,000 by March.

The Scottish Government has paid £ 6.5 million for the centres, with Justice Secretary Humza Yo u s a f admitting catching up with the delay will be a “significant challenge”.

When the plan was announced he said: “The trials will be heard in a court room, but the jurors themselves will be socially distanced in external jury centres.

“If they’re in cinemas, they will not look like cinemas. They will look like court rooms.”