- Name
- Age
- Address
- Occupation
- Charge(s)
- Date/Place of Crown Court hearing
- Bail
- Legal aid conditions
- Names of counsel
Police normally have a maximum of 24 hours to question but this can be extended by 12 hours by a senior officer and then a further 36 hours questioning time can be granted by a magistrate but the overall questioning time cannot exceed 96 hours. The only exception to this are terror suspects, where the limit is 28 days.
There are three different categories of offense -
- Summary - These offences stay in the magistrates court and are things like driving offences.
- Either way - These types of offences can go to crown court or magistrates court
- Indictable - These types of offences are for the crown court only and carry a sentence of 5 years and above.
Magistrates have limited sentencing powers and they are as follows -
- 6 month prison sentence and/or fines up to £5,000
- Suspended sentences
- Conditional discharges
- Community orders
- Binding orders
- ASBOs
The key stages that take place in a trial i.e. important things to report during a case -
- Prosecution opening
- Key prosecution witnesses
- Defense opening
- Key defense witnesses
- Judge's summing up
- Jury sent out, deliberation and verdict
- Sentencing
The main points to consider when reporting about children and young people are that children are legally juvenile until they are 18 and most under 18s enjoy anonymity, this means that you must be extra careful about accident identifying them.
The following court report shows examples of how a court case can be reported when a case is over and also has an example of juvenile's that are under 18 and therefore cannot be named and how to report that - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-11564234
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