Cousins: Situation getting worse
A barrister has spoken out about court security after a fight broke out between around 15 people in the coroner’s court where he was acting last week.
Andrew Cousins of 7 Harrington Street in Liverpool said the incident “brought home to me, in very sharp reality, the pressure and strain on our court security”.
He said: “Stood there in the courtroom, avoiding being caught up in the brawl, and avoiding being hit by the court furniture being thrown, I was confronted with the stark reality of how vulnerable we can be in a courtroom.”
The barrister stressed that neither he nor the judge or other court personnel were the target of the brawl, which was between two sides of a family and saw them “chucking anything not nailed down”, he recalled. There were no injuries.
“All of the court staff and the police were absolutely fantastic in restoring order as quickly as they could, and they worked extremely hard in a very difficult situation,” he said.
One of the issues was that the hearing was held in a council building, rather than a courthouse, meaning there was not the usual level of security. “Court security may have had greater chance of picking something up,” Mr Cousins suggested.
This was his first experience of physical violence in court, although as he often acted for public authorities in inquests, “I’ve had a lot of people being unpleasant to me”.
He went on: “The security in courts is vital to ensure that those inside are kept safe. How are any of us working to represent our clients, or judges having to make challenging and sometimes life altering decisions, ever going to be able to conduct their roles effectively, if they are concerned about violence breaking out in the courtroom and as a result, their own personal safety?”
Mr Cousins appeared in person yesterday for the first time since the incident. He confessed to some anxiety as “it was still going round in my mind”.
“In February the Lady Chief Justice [Baroness Carr] spoke of how the concerns about judicial security were at an all time high,” he added.
“This situation has not improved, it is not going away, and if anything is getting worse. We need a strong response from the security taskforce that has been established, to provide us with safe courts, at all levels, across the country.”
Yesterday saw publication of Baroness Carr’s annual report, which recorded the creation earlier in the year of a judicial security taskforce led by Mrs Justice Yip.
“The taskforce seeks to increase judicial office holders’ understanding of how they can better protect themselves. Among other things, it has launched new digital security training for the judiciary.
“It will also work collaboratively with experts from the police and other criminal justice agencies to ensure that the best possible systems and procedures are in place to protect the judiciary.”
Mr Justice Spencer also chairs the security committee on Judges’ Council, which is responsible for coordinating judicial security policy and offering supporting and advice to judicial office-holders facing specific threats.
“I am pleased that the Ministry of Justice has committed capital funding to ensure that HMCTS can adequately update courts and tribunals estates to ensure that they are safe,” she added.
Also writing in the report, the Senior Presiding Judge, Lord Justice Green, said: “We see far too many instances of judges experiencing threats and harassment, both physically and online.”
At the end of last year, there was a serious physical attack on Patrick Peruško in Milton Keynes; the assailant was later convicted and Baroness Carr spoke in February about how this “made everybody really sit up and make sure that we were doing everything with HMCTS to ensure that their responsibility to preserve the safety of judges in courts and tribunals was being met”.
Among the improvements to courts have been improving court layout – such as moving a witness box so the witness is not blocking the judge’s exit – regular tests of panic alarms, a new ‘potentially violent person’ protocol, and better engagement with local police.