ILEX students enjoy court date

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In October, ILEX tutors Sheelagh Tilley and Anne Lincoln took a group of students from The Manchester College to Salford Magistrates' Court to complement their studies on their legal secretaries' course.

Courtney Corridon, a student on the ILEX level 2 certificate for legal secretaries course described her day: ‘John Bailey was our guide for the day at Salford Magistrates' Court. He came out and escorted us through big, old wood and glass doors into the building where we had to go through a thorough security check. We even had to walk through a metal detector (like at airports).

The first court we went into was the Magistrates' Court. It was an old, dark courtroom, with the dock in the middle with a high glass screen around it and facing the Magistrates' bench. Behind the dock there were four long benches for members of the public – this is where we sat.

John told us that directly under the dock were some holding cells, where overnight prisoners were held. He led the way through the dock and down the steep concrete stairs where we saw where the accused were held. I could see through the little windows in the cell doors that they were very small inside. Some had benches and others a small single bed with a thin mattress – no covers or cushions or anything comfortable.

We went back up to the court and I wasn't sure what to expect next. The first defendant came up from the cells in handcuffs, accompanied by a guard, who took the handcuffs off before he faced the Magistrates. He was a young man aged about 20, accused of grievous bodily harm. The Magistrate thought this matter was too serious for the Magistrates' Court to deal with and set a date for him to attend at the Crown Court.

After about an hour of hearing more cases we went into the District Judge's Court, which was a much more modern court and defendants were quickly dealt with for possession of drugs, theft and criminal damage.

At the end of the morning, John took us back to the Mayor's Parlour and gave us the opportunity to ask questions about what we had seen. Lots of students were questioning the leniency of the sentences and John explained that there were rules and guidelines that the Magistrates had to stick to.

It was a really interesting day, but what did I learn? I learnt about the procedures of the courts (including the strict security measures), the types of cases that are heard and how they are dealt with. It also made me think that this is somewhere I might like to work.’