The penultimate closing speech was given by Mr Shaun Dryden on behalf of John Sanderson. He opened by explaining that he was addressing them eighth of all because his client was the eighth defendant, and he’d try not to cover ground his learned friends had already covered and he apologised in advance if he did […]
The first closing speech heard today, Tuesday 25 April, was from Ms Rebecca Brown for Darren Lawton. She checked that everyone could hear and started by saying that she really liked her job. I really like my job and I know that that makes me very lucky. One of the things I like most about […]
The half way point in the defendant’s closing speeches was occupied by Mr Christopher Knox for Ryan Fuller. [Mr Knox who addressed the jury after lunch on Monday 24 April, had a tendency towards the middle and end of his speech to move around somewhat, and raise his arms, which meant unfortunately I really struggled […]
The last address the jury heard on Friday (21 April) was from Mr Andrew Rutter for Peter Bennett. He referenced Ms Richardson’s opening to her closing speech where she said that the jury may be sick of hearing her voice. I’m at the other end of that particular scale, you’ve heard very little from me, […]
The jury were brought into court shortly after midday today. HHJ Smith thanked them and apologised that they were slightly later in than anticipated. HHJ Smith explained to the members of the jury that he had two documents for them, one was further legal directions, and a second was a Route to Verdict Questionnaire. HHJ […]
19 April 2023 The penultimate defendant, John Sanderson, was called to give evidence after the morning break. He gave an affirmation and his counsel, Mr Dryden, started by asking him to face the jury when giving his evidence. MrD: You are charged with two counts of ill-treatment involving the patient or service user, Patient 4. […]
14 April 2023 The fifth defendant to give their evidence to the court was Ryan Fuller. Mr Fuller is charged with 10 counts of ill-treatment. Mr Knox, counsel for Mr Fuller, started by asking him about his background. Mr Fuller told the court he was 27, agreed that he was a man of good character […]
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 […]
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 […]