Court was not sitting in this case last Thursday and Friday, so we picked up from where we left off here and here with Mr Patton, counsel for Niall Mellor, cross examining Olivia Davies, the BBC Undercover Reporter who worked as a support worker at Whorlton Hall, covertly filming the video exhibits in this case. […]
At 10:50 this morning the jury were brought back into court for the cross examination of Olivia Davies to continue (her first day giving evidence was reported here, her second day here). Ms Davies was the undercover BBC journalist who was working as a support worker at Whorlton Hall and recorded over 200 hours of […]
Technical difficulties in court first thing, combined with a scheduling clash for me mid morning, meant that I wasn’t in court for the conclusion of Olivia Davies cross examination by Mr Normanton, counsel for Karen McGhee, nor for the questioning of her by Mr Rutter for Peter Bennett or by Mr Constantine for Matthew Banner. […]
Before lunch, after the second set of videos were shown, and the jury were explained the first set of legal directions, the prosecution called their first witness, Olivia Davies. Ms Richardson took her through her evidence. In 2018 and 2019 she was working as a researcher for the BBC. She had worked at BBC Wales […]
After a morning break today, and following the second set of videos being shown to the jury, HHJ Smith gave 4 pages of legal directions to the member of the jury. He explained that these were the first legal directions, and they were likely to receive more in due course. He told them that the […]
Back at Teeside Crown Court this morning (I’m attending remotely) for the criminal prosecution of staff members at Whorlton Hall. HHJ Smith welcomed the jury back, hoping they’d had a restful weekend and explained to them that we’d be starting with about 45 minutes if additional video footage, picking up where we left off on […]
Today in court the jury were shown a number of video clips that the police had prepared as exhibits for this case. They were all filmed at Whorlton Hall in late 2018 and early 2019, by an undercover BBC reporter Olivia Davies. As such the filming isn’t the easiest to understand as it’s taken with […]
The jury aren’t in court today as initially planned. Instead the day is reserved for legal directions. I’ll be back in court tomorrow when the jury return.
The trial of 9 employees of the Cygnet run ‘independent hospital’, Whorlton Hall in Barnard Castle, County Durham was opened yesterday at Teesside Crown Court. HHJ Smith introduced the jury bundle to them, before asking Ms Richardson, for the Crown, to open the case. She introduced to the jury who was in court, ending with […]