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Law
A Level Law: Visit to The Old Bailey
The Stephen Lawrence Trial
On Thursday 1st December Ashni Parmar, Marianne Huck and Hattie Bernstein Dale visited the Central Criminal Court, more often referred to as the Old Bailey, as part of their AS Law studies. This was no ordinary visit as Mrs Bailey, having pulled numerous strings, had managed to arrange for her three students to be treated as her"pupils" (that is, trainee barristers) for the day. This meant that the girls were allowed special access to the body of the Court and the courtrooms, rubbing shoulders with all the advocates, rather than being restricted to the public gallery.
Once through the tight security at the entrance of the Bailey - there had been a tricky moment where the girls were "detained" by a burly, armed police officer whilst their precise details were checked! - they were whisked up to the Female Advocates Robing Room to experience what it would be like if they were at the Bailey with their brief and due to appear in court that morning!
As luck would have it, there were two murders being tried before the two most senior judges at the Bailey – the Recorder of London and the Common Sergeant and, as Mrs Bailey knew the barristers involved in both cases, she quickly arranged for her "pupils" to go and sit in court.
The first murder was an allegation against a father whose baby son had died in suspicious circumstances. At the post mortem examination, the child had been found to have a human bite mark on his cheek. The girls were able to watch the cross examination of the Forensic Orthodontologist by a female "QC" (Queen's Counsel) whose task it was to suggest to the witness, in front of the Jury, that the bite mark could have been caused by over exuberant "play-kissing" by her client, the child's father. It was fascinating for the girls to see an experienced advocate (and a woman to boot!) in action on her feet!
The second case was a drive-by shooting, hinging on identification and, when the girls went in, the Crown was painstakingly taking the jury through the forensic examination of every piece of evidence which allegedly linked the defendants to the killing. Again, the girls were exposed to skilful advocacy at the highest level.
However, the highlight of the experience had to be when the girls were permitted to go into the Stephen Lawrence trial before Mr Justice Treacy – a so called "Red" Judge. Inside, they sat feet away from the Lawrence family and listened as Defence Counsel attempted to establish with the Forensic Scientist that, due to the failure to follow best practice when different pieces of clothing were examined, contamination of the clothing could not be ruled out. They witnessed the crucial part of the case – which made headlines in all the newspapers and the Ten o'clock BBC News that evening. Whatever the final outcome of this extraordinary trial might be, the three lucky law students from St Catherine's will be in the privileged position of being able to say that they were there and actually witnessed the crucial episode in a trial which is likely to have an enormous impact on the criminal justice system of this country.
BBC News - Results of the Case
Mrs J Bailey
Law Department
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Tales from the Bailey enthrall Siena Society audience
Before a packed audience, St Catherine's very own English teacher and Head of Law, Jane Bailey delivered a highly colourful, entertaining and informative lecture giving the history behind how and why she became a barrister as well as describing some past cases to highlight some of the unique characteristics inherent in a life at the criminal bar.
Mrs Bailey began by likening the law to teaching in that it is very much a vocation; that the rewards as such are intrinsic to the work itself (plus the odd Aston Martin...). She herself qualified as a lawyer and joined the Bar whilst the whole profession was gripped by blatant sex discrimination. As a pupil in her first chambers we heard how she was treated by the clerk with blatant disrespect, being referred to as 'Sir' in a clear attempt to belittle and demoralize her. But as we learnt later, working amid such chauvinism gave Jane Bailey a resilience which proved invaluable when doing battle in the Crown Court cross-examining various police officers.
The beginning of her career seemed to be spent dealing with a variety of pretty sordid sex offence cases before she moved to the Essex Street set of chambers. Here Mrs Bailey worked on more white-collar crime cases, including the Maxwell brothers pension fraud case as well cases involving malpractice by the medical profession.
Many of us were curious to know 'How can you represent someone you know is guilty?' and fortunately Jane Bailey had already prepared an answer to this question. 'As a barrister your job is to defend the accused however suspicious you may be; you do not 'know' the accused is guilty unless he tells you, in which case a barrister should not represent them. It is the job of the jury to decide on the guilt or innocence of an accused, not the barristers or Judge.'
Many of those present at Jane Bailey's lecture were students, from St Catherine's and other schools too; you cannot help but feel that many of them will now be considering a career at the Bar.
