At the start of the day today jury members were given an addition to their jury bundle which consisted of the agreed summaries of the police interviews conducted with the defendants in the case. Mr Herrmann, for the prosecution, called DC Gary Barnes to assist him with reading the interview summaries onto the record, and […]
The jury were brought into court shortly after 11am, welcomed back by HHJ Smith and explained that today they’d be hearing from Detective Constable Alex Simms, the Officer in Charge of the case. First he’d be cross examined, and then the court would listen to summaries of interviews and counsel would be invited to examine […]
After the two live witnesses had given their evidence today, Olivia Davies and Joe Plomin, it was explained to the jury that there is some evidence that is agreed by all parties, and as such witnesses are not called to give their evidence, instead it is read onto the record because it is not in […]
Today started with the final two barristers questioning Olivia Davies, the BBC reporter who worked as a support worker at Whorlton Hall and covertly filmed the footage that this case is built upon. You can read about that in a separate post here. After a morning break, Mr Joe Plomin was called as the Crown’s […]
This was the fifth day in court for the prosecution’s first witness, Olivia Davies, the BBC journalist who worked undercover as a support worker at Whorlton Hall, filming the video footage being used in this case. You can read about her first day here, second day here, third day here, fourth day here and this […]
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 […]