Whorlton Hall Prosecution – 30 March 2023 – Count 21: not guilty

Yesterday the jury weren’t present as it was taken up with legal submissions, and first thing this morning HHJ Smith made a ruling in relation to those submissions. The jury were brought into court shortly after 11:30am today. HHJ Smith thanked them for their patience and understanding, and explained that it is not always easy […]

Whorlton Hall Prosecution – Agreed Facts

HHJ Smith told the jury that there were a number of agreed facts, and that they are what they say on the tin, distilled from documents. He said that similar to the agreed statements from witnesses that were not in dispute between parties, and are just as much evidence as if a witness came along […]

Whorlton Hall Prosecution – Olivia Davies 20 March 2023

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. […]

Whorlton Hall Prosecution – Legal Directions

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 […]

Whorlton Hall Prosecution – 10 March 2023

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 […]

Whorlton Hall Prosecution – Opening

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 […]