It’s jury disservice

Disabled juror discharged as all court lifts broke

and

A DISABLED juror was discharged from a robbery trial because all five lifts in the court were broken.

The woman had spent a fortnight listening to the case but could not get back in. It left just 10 out of 12 jurors because another was discharged earlier.

The case finished the next day with unanimous guilty verdicts against two men at Maidstone Crown Court, Kent.

Alison Kerry, of disability equality charity Scope, said: “It’s unacceptable five lifts could be out of order at once. Courts and the Government should do much more to make sure our justice system is accessible.”

A survey in August found just two per cent of courtrooms in England were fully accessible.

A courts spokesman said: “Two of the lifts were repaired within a matter of hours and work is under way to fix the remaining three.”