The Royal Courts of Justice

On the last Monday, we had a school trip, it was to the Royal Courts of Justice. The journey on the bus was a while but not too long. When we finally got there we were told to sit down by someone that worked there. We were told some of the rules and then taken into one of the court rooms. The court room was small with few chairs, and rows of books all lined up together.

When we sat down we were given sheets about a role we were going to play out about a crime that happened in a lady's home. It was a robbery done by a 10 year old called John, he was seen by a few witnesses, like Mr. Grey and Mrs. Smith.

In the court room there was a Judge at the very top, there was a Clerk just underneath the Judge. There were eye witnesses, some at the stand next to the Clerk and some at the back of the room, and the Jury that sat in front of the eye witnesses. In our role play I took part as a Juror. The Judge would send people up to the stand and sentence them guilty and the Clerk would record the evidence, the eye witness would say what they saw at the scene of the crime, and the Jury would decide who was guilty or not.

As a Juror it was my job to make a difficult decision. All twelve Jurors had to leave the room to discuss the evidence in the hall. We came to the decision that Mr. Grey and John were guilty. John, because he proved to be in two places at once, and Mr. Grey, because he said he was walking his dog in the park and said he could see John in the window of the house, but the park was miles from the house.

It was a great day.