The Youth Justice Legal Centre was officially launched at an event in the House of Lords with Baroness Martha Lane Fox and Lady Hale.
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Speaking at the launch, Lady Hale said:
‘Most barristers who appear in the youth court are the most junior and least experienced. They are using the youth court as a way of learning how to do what they will be doing later in the adult courts. That can’t be right….’
She also called for consistency of treatment of children across the family and criminal court system, and for child defendants to have the same protections as child witnesses. She said, child defendants ‘are often just as, if not more, vulnerable than children who are witnesses and just as in need of measures of assistance, yet they have less general support around them’.
There were other speeches including Chrisann Jarrett who was an intern at Just for Kids Law.
A mother of a 12 year old, who was arrested for arson having been with a friend who lit some toilet paper and damaged a loo seat in a public toilet also spoke at the launch. She approached the Youth Justice Legal Centre for advice, and following our involvement, the police decided to take no further action (they had previously proposed a youth conditional caution).
See coverage here, an article in the Solicitors Journal here and the Times here.