Judge commends work of newspaper’s reporters at his last court session
A judge summoned two Newsquest reporters to attend his last court session in order to commend their work and the role of their newspaper in the judicial system.
Judge Christopher Prince opened the last session of his ten year tenure as resident judge at Durham Crown Court by inviting representatives from organisations who had worked with him to administer justice: probation, witness support, police, magistrates, prosecutors, court managers and the reporters.
In his remarks from the bench, he singled out The Northern Echo’s reporter, Bruce Unwin.
“I don’t think Bruce Unwin has ever had any recognition from any court,” he said.
“His stories have been fair, accurate and balanced. It is only too easy for the press to take cheap shots at a judge, and I know it would have been easy for you to take things I have said out of context and gained more publicity for your stories, but that has never happened.
“Courts need the media. There’s no point passing a deterrence sentence if these cases are not reported. Bruce Unwin consistently spots those cases that need reporting, like my mantra (regarding police car pursuits) that if you don’t stop you go to jail.
“He reports these every time. It saves lives and it stops people getting badly hurt.”
Judge Prince’s time in Durham has been noted for its innovation in the way the court has handled victims and in pioneering restorative justice, and he continued: “I want to thank The Northern Echo. We wanted to publicise a new approach to victims so that more victims of crime would come forward.
“The Northern Echo published the article we wanted and I know, because people told me, that people saw it and it allowed them to come forward,” he said.
He said that once in the judicial system, the victims of crime were assisted by many of the organisations that he had gathered for his last session, and he concluded: “Not to recognise the role of The Northern Echo and Bruce Unwin would be to fail to recognise an important member of the team.”
He had also asked the Echo’s chief feature writer Chris Lloyd to be present, as one of the highlights of his tenure had been Durham Crown Court celebrating its 200th anniversary.
He had enabled Chris to write a series of features about the court, including some of its most celebrated murder cases, and had allowed the Echo photographic access to the courtroom and cells for the first time in two centuries.
He finished his last session by allowing the paper’s photographer, Tom Banks, to take a picture inside the court for the second time in 200 years.
