Budding young lawyers from Highbridge’s King Alfred School got a taste of life in court when they took part in a mock trial at the weekend.
The sixth form legal team travelled to Plymouth Combined Court to take part in the South West regional heats of the Bar Mock Trial competition on Saturday (November 29th).
The King Alfred students competed against five other schools from across the south west and had to prepare their cases for both the prosecution and defence rounds.
Presiding over events were three experienced judges, including a senior circuit judge, and the cases included dangerous driving and breach of the peace.
The event required true team ethos and commitment, with four lawyers in the form of James Ballantyne, Nicholas Bennett, Emily Sanders (Year 11) and Owen Jandrell (Year 11), ably supported by Haley Titmus as Court Clerk, Ben Griffiths (Year 11) as Court Usher, Jonathan Davey and Gemma Nash (Year 11) as witnesses for the defence and prosecution. The jury team was made up of Chelsi Payne, Sophie Burridge, Sarah Harding, Olivia Ward, Adam Britton and Rebecca Biggs.
Although the team was delighted to win the final of their three cases the real highlight for everyone involved was learning that Luke Sait won the award for Best Court Reporter.
Luke was invited into Court Three to observe the first case of the day before retiring to a small room to hand write his report which then had to be submitted to the organisers.
Jonathan Gaskell, Head of the Sixth Form, told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “The event was terrific fun and a tremendous experience for those students interested in how the English legal system operates and the roles and responsibilities of all those involved.”
“The King Alfred legal team was up against schools with ten years experience of the competition and they gave as good as they got. This year was for fun, next year we’ll be in it to win it!”
