The Leicestershire Law Courts is a Crown Court venue, which deals with criminal cases, as well as a County Court venue, which deals with civil cases, in Wellington Street, Leicester, England.

History

Until the early 1980s, criminal court hearings were held in the Great Hall at

Leicester Castle Leicester Castle is in the city of the same name in the English county of Leicestershire. The complex is situated in the west of Leicester City Centre, between Saint Nicholas Circle to the north and De Montfort University to the south. A large ...

. However, as the number of court cases in Leicester grew, it became necessary to commission a more substantial courthouse for criminal court hearings. The site selected by 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 ...

had accommodated a series of rows of terraced housing (Slawson Street, Ashwell Street and Elton Street) before the area was cleared. The new building was designed by the

Property Services Agency The Property Services Agency (PSA) was an agency of the United Kingdom government, in existence from 1972 to 1993. Its role was to “provide, manage, maintain, and furnish the property used by the government, including defence establishments, offi ...

in the Modernist style, built in red brick and was opened in March 1981. Originally established to deal with Crown Court hearings only, it was extended to accommodate the County Court hearings as well in the early 1990s. The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage facing onto Wellington Street. The left hand section was formed by a two-storey block fenestrated by tall casement windows on the ground floor and by small square windows on the first floor. The central section, which was recessed, was formed by a flight of steps leading up to a glass door giving access to a full-height

atrium Atrium may refer to: Anatomy * Atrium (heart), an anatomical structure of the heart * Atrium, the genital structure next to the genital aperture in the reproductive system of gastropods * Atrium of the ventricular system of the brain * Pulmona ...

with a steel-framed pediment, which projected forward. The right hand section, which projected forward and was fenestrated in a similar style to the left hand section, was formed by two separate blocks, the one on the left being taller than the one on the right. Internally, the building was laid out to accommodate ten courtrooms. Notable cases have included the trial and conviction of the children's home manager, Frank Beck, in November 1991, for sexual and physical assaults against more than one hundred children in his care, the trial and conviction of the

spree killer A spree killer is someone who commits a criminal act that involves two or more murders or homicides in a short time, in multiple locations. The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics defines a spree killing as "killings at two or more locations ...

, Philip Smith, in July 2001, for the murders of three women in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

, and the trial and conviction of four men, in March 2005, for the murder of two teenage girls, Charlene Ellis and Letisha Shakespeare, with a

machine pistol A machine pistol is an autoloading pistol capable of fully automatic fire. The term can also be used to describe a stockless handgun-style submachine gun. The term is a calque of ''Maschinenpistole'', the German word for submachine guns. Ma ...

in Aston,

References

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External links

Court information
Buildings and structures in Leicester Crown Court buildings Government buildings completed in 1981