Staff Shortage Delaying Murder Trials and Costing Hundreds of Thousands of Pounds

Police offices stand on duty outside the Old Bailey, England's Central Criminal Court, on Sept. 30, 2021. Daniel Leal/AFP via Getty Images

The most senior judge at Britain’s top criminal court, the Old Bailey, has contacted the Ministry of Justice to complain about the shortage of dock officers.

The recorder of London, Judge Mark Lucraft, KC, took action after two murder trials on Monday were delayed at an estimated cost of at least £25,000.

Dock officers—who are employed by the private contractors Serco—sit in the dock with the defendants during trials and sometimes accompany them to and from the prisons where they are held on remand.

There has to be a certain number of dock officers depending on how many defendants there are in a trial and a shortage in recent months has had a damaging impact on the wheels of justice, delaying trials at huge, accumulative expense.

The situation culminated on Monday when the trial of six men accused in connection with the kidnap and murder of Turkish Cypriot DJ Koray Alpergin and the trial of another half dozen men accused of murdering London Fields gang member Kacey Boothe were both delayed.

Eventually, a deal was agreed upon whereby the Alpergin trial would have dock officers in the morning, to allow live witnesses—including two who were giving evidence from behind a curtain under so-called special measures—to give evidence, and the Boothe trial would have them in the afternoon to allow prosecutor Anthony Orchard, KC, to make headway in his opening speech.

‘Fundamentally unjust’

Judge Lynn Tayton, KC, sitting in the Boothe trial, told barristers: “The recorder has advised the Ministry of Justice of the problems we are having. It is fundamentally unjust to everybody, to the defendants, to the family of Mr. Boothe, it is absolutely wrong.”

The jury in both trials was informed of the situation.

Undated images of Kacey Boothe (L) and Koray Alpergin (R)—who are at the centre of two unrelated murder trials at the Old Bailey which began in September 2023. Metropolitan Police

Judge Sarah Whitehouse, KC, sitting in the Alpergin trial, told jurors, “The defendants are depending on the Prison Service in getting them to court and they can be delayed by traffic, staff shortages, or whatever.”

“But all docks have got to have dock officers in them and that is standard under the regulations but dock officers often come from elsewhere and there have to be sufficient numbers and it’s incredibly difficult at the Central Criminal Court, which is the premier court in the land, at the moment,” she added.

“So this morning we didn’t have dock officers to start the trial and it was the same in three courts in the building,” said Judge Whitehouse.

Delays Costing £25,000 per Trial per day

In each case, the six defendants had two barristers each and the estimated cost of £25,000 per day reflects the amount spent on legal aid, jury expenses and other court costs.

Both the Alpergin and Boothe trial are set to last well into November and there are a number of other so-called multi-hander trials with multiple defendants due to start at the Old Bailey next month, including five men who are accused of shooting dead Saydi Abu Sheikh, a drill rapper better known as Giddy, and his cousin in Ilford in October 2022.

In May a senior prosecutor at the Old Bailey, Ed Brown, KC, told The Times trials were over-running because of Serco’s inability to transfer defendants from prison to courts on time.

At the time it was reported Lord Justice Edis, the senior presiding judge in England and Wales, was reviewing alleged multiple failures by Serco to bring prisoners to court and then into dock to stand trial.

Chris Hodkinson, Serco’s PECS contract director, said, in an email to The Epoch Times, “The Serco court team at the Old Bailey is highly experienced and has a full complement of officers.”

“This court has some of the most challenging trials in the country and is currently hearing a high number of gang-related trials with multiple defendants, requiring additional officers. On a daily basis, we are bringing in over 20 additional officers to the court to manage this increase in demand, as well as recruiting additional officers at our own cost,” he added.

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson told The Epoch Times, in an email, “Over 99 percent of all docks are appropriately staffed at the start of the court day.”