A leaking roof, a crumbling system and justice denied

Walking up the stairs and into the bowels of the 19th century courthouse, the crumbling state of the criminal justice system is unavoidable.

One of the two staircases to the five courts upstairs is closed, with a tarpaulin sheet covering it. Other areas have also been covered in sheets.

They have been spread in an attempt to mitigate the effect of water leaks at Minshull Street Crown Court, Manchester’s historic courthouse which dates back to 1871. It is understood that a fault has left vents open, allowing water to come in, in an area which is difficult for engineers to access.

The sheeting has been in place for months. The area underneath the water leakage has been taped off so court users don’t get wet.

But that's not even the most concerning thing about the court.

Statistics recently revealed that Minshull Street ranks second among crown courts in England and Wales for the number of cases waiting to be heard. With an outstanding caseload of 2,378, only Snaresbrook Crown Court in London has a bigger backlog, with 3,442 cases waiting to be resolved there.

And the situation across Greater Manchester is not ideal. At Manchester Crown Court, in Crown Square, Spinningfields, the city’s modernist courthouse built in the 1960s, 1,984 cases are waiting to be heard. While the figure stands at 967 at Bolton Crown Court. It is, of course, not just a problem which is affecting Greater Manchester’s courts.

Nationally, the backlog for cases in the crown court has almost doubled in the past five years. In total, there are 73,105 cases waiting to be heard by judges across England and Wales, with the latest statistics running to September this year. While some in the legal system question whether these statistics are accurate,