Leeds Crown Court, more accurately the Crown Court at Leeds, is a venue of the

Crown Court The Crown Court is the court of first instance of England and Wales responsible for hearing all Indictable offence, indictable offences, some Hybrid offence, either way offences and appeals lied to it by the Magistrates' court, magistrates' court ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

, England. The buildings are situated on Westgate in

Leeds city centre Leeds city centre is the central business district of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is roughly bounded by the Leeds Inner Ring Road, Inner Ring Road to the north and the River Aire to the south and can be divided into several quarters. C ...

, adjacent to Leeds magistrates courts.

Notable cases

As Leeds Assizes

Zsiga Pankotia Zsiga Pankotia (or Pankotai) was a 31-year-old Hungarian-born murderer who was hanged on Thursday, 29 June 1961 at Armley Gaol, Leeds, West Yorkshire, (now HM Prison Leeds). He was hanged by Harry Allen for the murder of Jack Eli Myers in a hou ...

– found guilty of murder, became the last man to be hanged at Armley Gaol in 1961.

As Leeds Crown Court

John Poulson John Garlick Llewellyn Poulson (14 April 1910 – 31 January 1993) was a British architectural designer and businessman who caused a major political scandal when his use of bribery was disclosed in 1972. The highest-ranking figure to be forced ...

– found guilty of fraud and jailed for five years (later increased to seven years) in 1974. *Gary Hart – found guilty of

causing death by dangerous driving Causing death by dangerous driving is a statutory offence in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It is an aggravated form of dangerous driving. It is currently created by section 1 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 (as substituted by the ...

in connection with the

Selby rail crash The Selby rail crash (also known as the Great Heck Rail Crash) was a high-speed train crash that occurred at Great Heck near Selby, North Yorkshire, England, on the morning of 28February 2001. An InterCity 225 passenger train operated by Great ...

and jailed for five years in 2001. *

Nick Griffin Nicholas John Griffin (born 1 March 1959) is a British politician and white supremacist who represented North West England as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2009 to 2014. He served as chairman and then president of the far-righ ...

– acquitted of

incitement to racial hatred Incitement to ethnic or racial hatred is a crime under the laws of several countries. Australia In Australia, the Racial Hatred Act 1995 amends the Racial Discrimination Act 1975, inserting Part IIA – Offensive Behaviour Because of Race, Colour ...

in 2006. *

Wearside Jack Wearside Jack is the nickname given to John Samuel Humble (8 January 1956 – 30 July 2019), a British man who pretended to be the Yorkshire Ripper in a hoax audio recording and several letters during the period 1978–1979. Humble sent a taped ...

– The

Yorkshire Ripper Peter William Sutcliffe (2 June 1946 – 13 November 2020) was an English serial killer who was dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper (an allusion to Jack the Ripper) by the press. Sutcliffe was convicted of murdering 13 women and attempting t ...

hoaxer. * John Darwin - canoeist who faked his own death in 2002 in a life insurance fraud, sentenced in 2008. *Karen Matthews and Michael Donovan – found guilty in December 2008 of the

kidnapping of Shannon Matthews On 19 February 2008, Shannon Louise Matthews (born 9 September 1998), a nine-year-old girl, was reported missing in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, England. The search for her became a major missing person police operation which was compared to the d ...

child neglect A form of child abuse, child neglect is an act of caregivers (e.g., parents) that results in depriving a child of their basic needs, such as the failure to provide adequate supervision, health care, clothing, or housing, as well as other physica ...

and perverting the course of justice. The pair were each sentenced to eight years in prison in January 2009. *

Murder of Ann Maguire On 28 April 2014, 61-year-old teacher Ann Maguire (5 April 1953 – 28 April 2014) was stabbed to death while teaching a Spanish lesson at Corpus Christi Catholic College in Halton Moor, Leeds, England. The perpetrator, William "Will" Cornick, wh ...

– 16-year-old Will Cornick was sentenced to a minimum of 20 years in custody in November 2014 for murdering his teacher in April of that year. *Colin Gregg – Heir to

Greggs Greggs plc is a British bakery chain. It specialises in savoury products such as bakes, sausage rolls, sandwiches and sweet items including doughnuts and vanilla slices. It is headquartered in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It is listed on t ...

bakery chain and former headmaster, jailed for 13½ years (later reduced to 8½ years by the

Court of Appeal A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of t ...

) in 2017 after being found guilty of sexually abusing four boys over a period spanning more than 30 years. He had been sent for retrial in Leeds after a jury at Newcastle Crown Court failed to reach verdicts the previous year.

References

External links

{{commons category, Leeds Crown Court
Court information
Crown Court buildings Buildings and structures in Leeds Court buildings in England