Morning. On the way back to Westminster Magistrates Court for day two of Graham Linehan’s trial for harassment and damaging a phone. Here is @Glinner at the end of yesterday’s hearing.
Yesterday the prosecution set out the case and the complainant (an 18yo male called Sophia Brooks) gave evidence, and was cross-examined. Read the tweet thread on that here:
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Westminster Magistrates Court in the sunshine this morning. It's v close to Marylebone station for those not familiar.
Some shots of the scene directly outside from the queue to get in.
I am now in court, same seat as yesterday. Graham Linehan (GL) is sitting directly opposite me on the other side of the courtroom - outside the dock. The public gallery is once more heaving. @ThePosieParker is in the public gallery with a few other veterans of the gender wars.
The complainant - Sophia Brooks (SB) has plentiful supporters as well. Initially SB and two friends were going to sit at the back of court, but there's been a bit of a kerfuffle (one fell out of their seat and has been telling prosecuting counsel that something isn't acceptable)
... and it seems they've all now been moved to the public gallery. So the main well of the court is now just lawyers and hacks. Not as many journalists as yesterday (first day of a trial always attracts more attention), but often the more interesting details come up later on...
Yesterday the judge told court that prosecuting counsel would use female pronouns to describe SB, defence counsel would call him Ms Brooks and GL would describe him as a man. The judge made the point very clearly there would be no compelled speech in her courtroom. To that end..
I will mainly be using sex-based pronouns throughout my reporting unless quoting others. I have no desire to be discourteous to anyone, it comes from a personal and professional desire to describe reality/the world as it is.
Also PLEASE NOTE - everything I tweet is a summary and/or chracterisation of what is being said or happening in court NOT a verbatim record. Nothing is a direct quote unless I put it in "direct quotes".
Judge is in court, but deaiing with her list. Currently discussing a completely different case.
Yesterday the atmosphere was very relaxed. Today it seems quite charged. Despite fewer media we were all ticketed and the ushers were a lot stricter today.
Prosecuting counsel is Julia Faure Walker who I will likely call P for proescutor.
GL's counsel is Sarah Vine KC who I called SV yesterday which got slightly confusing with SB, especially as B and V are next to each other on the keyboard. I might try DC for Defence Counsel...
GL's counsel is Sarah Vine KC who I called SV yesterday which got slightly confusing with SB, especially as B and V are next to each other on the keyboard. I might try DC for Defence Counsel...
... with D for defendant (ie GL).
J for judge obvs. Once the youngest ever female judge in the country #trufact
J for judge obvs. Once the youngest ever female judge in the country #trufact
What else can I tell you? It's hot and stuffy - the judge has already said people can take their jackets off and steps are being taken to keep the lawyers watered. I am not sure if steps are being taken to deal with the aircon, but it is mildly uncomfortable.
It's a windowless modern courtroom. I am not going to start describing the pattern of the carpet, but nothing is happening right now...
P on her feet telling J that the C (SB) was in the well of court with two friends and DC objected so they were moved to the public gallery. In doing so one fell over which was "humiliating", but everything seems okay now.
J right P believes SB should be addressed according to their affirmed gender and name. D says C is male and ID-ing as female does not alter this fact. DC will call C "the complainant" or "Ms Brooks". D will call C a male and use language like transsexual and gender ID.
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