Master’s blog, stardate 2013.282

On Monday I was down in the Central Criminal Courts as a guest of Sheriff Sir Paul Judge for lunch with the judges.  Having never been inside the Old Bailey for any reason, innocently or otherwise, I was intrigued by the invitation and had a most interesting day, including a couple of hours in Court No. 4 listening to the prosecuting counsel making his opening address in a murder trial.  I was most impressed with the care and clarity, to my mind, with the way in which the counsel presented his opening description of the case against the defendant.  The counsel made it clear that the the case would be gone through in great detail in the subsequent stages of the trial.  I was equally impressed with the amount of information that we all scatter world-wide when we use our mobile phones.  I was sitting on a bench in the well of the court, which is very small, with the judge sitting on high and the defendant directly opposite him, I never saw the defendant since I was so low down on my bench and could not see into the dock.  Not a day to be missed.