Ipswich Crown Court is a Crown Court venue which deals with criminal cases at Russell Road,

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line ...

, England. It was completed in 2004.

History

Until the early 21st century, crown court hearings were held in the Civic Centre complex in Crown Drive, which was completed in the 1960s. After the judicial facilities in the Civic Centre were deemed to be inadequate, the

Lord Chancellor's Department The Lord Chancellor's Department was a United Kingdom government department answerable to the Lord Chancellor with jurisdiction over England and Wales. Created in 1885 as the Lord Chancellor's Office with a small staff to assist the Lord Chancel ...

decided to commission a new courthouse: the site chosen formed part of the Ipswich Village Development. The new building was procured under a Private finance initiative contract in 2001. It was designed by Austin-Smith:Lord in the

modern style The Modern Style is a style of architecture, art, and design that first emerged in the United Kingdom in the mid-1880s. It is the first Art Nouveau style worldwide, and it represents the evolution of the Arts and Crafts movement which was native ...

, built by

Mowlem Mowlem was one of the largest construction and civil engineering companies in the United Kingdom. Carillion bought the firm in 2006. History The firm was founded by John Mowlem in 1822, and was continued as a partnership by successive generat ...

and was officially opened by

Lord Falconer Charles Leslie Falconer, Baron Falconer of Thoroton, (born 19 November 1951) is a British Labour peer and barrister who served as Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice under Prime Minister Tony Blair from 2003 to 2007. Born in ...

on 15 October 2004. The design involved a long glazed wall, which enclosed the main hall and entrance, and a stainless steel roof which was

cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a cant ...

ed forward on gable walls supported by narrow columns. The gable walls, the columns and the full-height recessed wall on the extreme right, which displayed a Royal coat of arms, were all constructed from white Suffolk bricks. Internally, the building was laid out to accommodate five courtrooms. Notable cases heard at the court have included the trial and conviction of Steve Wright, in 2008, for the murder of five sex workers, the trial and conviction of Paul Clarke and

Lorraine Thorpe Lorraine Thorpe (born 1994) is a British woman who is Britain's youngest female double murderer. Over the space of nine days in August 2009, Thorpe tortured and murdered two people in Ipswich, one her own father. She came to national attention u ...

, in 2010, for the murder of Rosalyn Hunt and Desmond Thorpe, and the trial and conviction of Stephen Anthony Searle, in 2018, for the murder of his wife, Anne Seale.

Notes

References

{{reflist Buildings and structures in Ipswich Crown Court buildings 2004 establishments in England Court buildings in England Government buildings completed in 2004