Teens facing attempted murder charge locked up for three months without access to lawyers

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Harsh Covid-19 restrictions behind bars and a series of blunders derailed court hearings and left the 17-year-olds cut off from their legal representatives
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Four teenage boys facing an attempted murder charge were locked up for more than three months without access to a lawyer in a case branded a “horror show” by a judge.

Harsh Covid-19 restrictions behind bars and a series of blunders derailed court hearings and left the 17-year-olds cut off from their legal representatives.  

The case at Snaresbrook crown court shines a spotlight on the plight of young defendants in the justice system during the pandemic, as well as struggles of the court system to cope.

Three of the alleged attackers were arrested shortly after a stabbing on July 18, while the fourth was charged a week later. They appeared at youth court and were sent to the crown court where problems began.

They were held at young offender institution Cookham Wood in Kent, where they were denied the chance to speak to their lawyers “owing to the available facilities”, the court heard.

The teenagers were not brought to court or put on videolink for two hearings in August and in early October lawyers had still not been able to speak to them. On October 23, the boys had again not been brought to court. Four days later, one defendant was finally in the dock but another was missing, leading Judge Nigel Peters QC to call the case as “a total horror show”.

He demanded that the teenager, now at HMP Pentonville after turning 18, be brought to court or the prison governor turn up to offer an explanation. The case is set for a trial in January.

MPs on the justice select committee last week said the number of youth defendants has dropped over the last decade, but time spent in the justice system has increased by 50 per cent.  

Justice minister Lucy Frazer said there are “far too many people on remand in the youth custody estate”, and is leading a review of the system.

Despite what the court was told, the Ministry of Justice disputed the claim that the defendants had received legal assistance.

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “There is no truth to this story. The defendants have spoken to their solicitors by phone and video.”

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