What it’s like to go to court

Any regular Stray Ferret reader will see various stories from Harrogate Magistrate’s Court up on the website in the space of a week. That’s because, as a local news publication, we believe it is important to be reporting on crimes that affect the people who live here.

Every Wednesday and Thursday we are emailed the court lists, and each week we read through them to see where the defendants are from, where crimes were committed and what the nature of the offence is.

It was a real eye opener for me: I never realised how much crime was committed on my doorstep.

On Thursdays and Fridays one of our reporters goes the two streets over to the courthouse, normally just for the morning or afternoon.

You would not believe the level of security – more than even at an airport. Not only is there a full body scanner and a bag search, but you have to take a sip of your water, open your laptop and flick through your notebook.

By now though, the security team know the Stray Ferret journalists, often asking which case we’re here to see and letting us know if the defendant has arrived (because sometimes they don’t). 

Then, it’s time to sit at the back of the courtroom and wait for the hearings to begin.

While we attend with a numbered list, this doesn’t decide the order that cases are heard in, so sometimes you end up sitting through cases you’re not going to write an article on – but often you learn some interesting nuggets just from being there.

The most – perhaps naïve – surprise I got was at how slow the process can be. There are pre-sentencing reports that get read by magistrates before the hearing, sometimes they can be out the room for 20 minutes discussing what sentence to give, there can be a lot of waiting around for the next case to be heard.

But it’s still a job that we believe is worth doing – that’s why media law is a core part of journalism training, and we’re probably the only people left who still use shorthand (it's illegal to record in a court).

Why do we bother?

Because by reporting on a few cases a week of crimes committed in the local area we’re helping keep the justice system in check, making sure the facts get reported in an age of misinformation, and sharing news on the crimes that have affected people who actually live here.

Open justice only works if someone is in the courtroom, and the Stray Ferret is the only one there each week.

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