“Busy?” I asked a friend who’s training as a criminal barrister.
“You could say that.” Magistrates’ courts have sat through a second straight night. “I finished at five,” said my friend. “Back in court at 8.”
The courts are determined to deliver what David Cameron described as “the full force of the law.” These are bail hearings for the 600 people charged so far. Defendants are apparently being arraigned in groups of three in some courts, an indication of the strain caused by these extraordinary circumstances. There will be little respite in the coming days. As I understand it, the overwhelming majority of applicants have been denied bail and will remain in custody until their case is brought before a crown court, where judges are able to send down sterner punishments. The expectation is that the vast majority of those found guilty will receive custodial sentences.
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