Mock Trial, Real Ability

Eighteen students from Years 10 to 13 represented the school in the 2015 Bar Mock Trial Competition at Bournemouth Crown Court.

The students competed with vigour throughout and won both their first two heats. In the end the team narrowly missed out on a place in the final, finishing in third place overall. The students had worked incredibly hard for this competition and performed fantastically; they were a credit to the school.

In July the students were presented with two fictional cases to analyse and decipher. It was then the job of the witnesses to learn their statements and the barristers began to compile their questions and write and rehearse their opening/closing speeches.

Further preparation involved a trip to Bournemouth Crown Court where the students enjoyed a session with His Honour Judge Harrow. The students were able to ask the judge all manner of questions about life in the legal professions and he was fantastically knowledgeable and helpful in giving advice about how the students could embark on a career in law. The students then observed two real trials and a sentencing. The experience was profoundly eye-opening for the students who got to experience what it was actually like to be a barrister.

It was a pleasure to be supported by local MP Christopher Chope. The students enjoyed talking to him after the competition and some of the students benefitted enormously from his knowledge of law and the parliamentary system.

The students worked incredibly well as a team, were a credit to the school and are particularly determined to make sure it is the winner’s trophy that they bring home next year. To give you a full flavour of the day below is a report by one of our team, Phoebe Grinter. Outlining the evidence and judgement of one of the cases.

‘Disaster at the Dodgy Dive.’

 

Morgan Lewis, a sales assistant from Everytown, has today been cleared of a robbery charge at Bournemouth Crown Court.

 

Lewis (23) was accused of taking local student Toni Williams’ (21) wallet in the early hours of 1st January 2015 outside the Dodgy Dive nightclub.

 

Williams told the court that she and her friend Ronny Peters had chosen this nightclub for the ‘cheap drinks - 2 shots for a pound’, and despite having consumed ‘10 shots of tequila and 2 pints of beer’, she was not drunk, just ‘merry’. Lewis described the club as ‘not my sort of thing’. He had to be at work early the next morning, so he ‘didn’t drink a great deal’.

 

The pair were said to have had an argument in the club just before midnight, which ended in Lewis being asked by staff to leave.

 

Having left the club, Lewis ‘waited outside for 10 minutes and had a cigarette.’ He and his friend, Robin Wall, had arranged to get the 12.30am bus home.

 

At a similar time, Williams was making her way to the taxi rank when she was attacked and robbed. Despite the dark and only ‘briefly’ seeing her attacker’s face, Williams says that she is ‘absolutely certain’ it was Lewis who attacked her.

 

PC Stamp, who has worked for the Everytown Police for ten years, was on foot patrol nearby. ‘As I turned the corner I saw someone lying on the ground.’ he stated. Lewis was able to point PC Stamp in the direction her attacker had gone, thus he found the wallet between Williams and the bus stop, where Lewis and Wall were waiting.

 

‘I had no problem giving my details as I had nothing to hide.’ stated Lewis. However, due to the fact that £20 was missing from the wallet, and that Lewis had £20 on him, he was arrested.
‘The £20 was what I had left over and I intended to use this to pay for my bus fare’ he told the court.
Due to insufficient evidence, Lewis was found not guilty and all charges were dropped.

 

 

 - report by Phoebe Grinter

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Owned by: BRY | Last Published: 10/12/2015 09:03:15 | Next Update: NA