In court, it’s usually the defendants who apologise to the judges. But at Snaresbrook Crown Court in east London, the roles have been reversed.
So these defendants and victims learn what barristers have said for years: the criminal justice system of England and Wales is blocked and probably broken. Public debate focuses on whether the police will catch criminals and whether the courts will sentence them correctly.
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But lawyers are increasingly concerned about the bit in the middle, the part of the process that rarely features in TV thrillers: the slow wait for court time.
How the English courts reached breaking point
A record backlog of criminal trials has left lawyers ‘drowning in cases’. Henry Mance goes in search of the answers