Northampton Crown Court is a Crown Court venue which deals with criminal cases at Lady's Lane in Northampton, England.

History

Until the late 1980s, criminal court hearings in Northampton were held in the

Sessions House A sessions house in the United Kingdom was historically a courthouse that served as a dedicated court of quarter sessions, where criminal trials were held four times a year on quarter days. Sessions houses were also used for other purposes to do w ...

. However, as the number of court cases in Northampton grew, it became necessary to commission a more substantial courthouse for criminal matters. 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 (Kerr Street and Park Street) before the area was cleared. The building was designed by Kit Allsopp architects, built in buff stone at a cost of £11.5 million, and was completed in 1987. The design involved two gabled sections connected by a recessed glass

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 ...

facing onto Lady's Lane. The right hand gabled section was fenestrated by a small square window on the ground floor and featured a prominent Royal coat of arms mounted on the brickwork at first floor level. Internally, the building was equipped with four courtrooms. The design won the Summer Exhibition Award from the Royal Academy of Arts in 1986. As a second-tier court, the complex was originally commissioned to deal solely with criminal cases, but was later remodelled to include provision for the County Court, which deals with civil cases, and the Family Court as well.

Notable cases

Notable cases heard at the courthouse include: * December 2002 – Shaied Nazir, Ahmed Ali Awan and Sarfraz Ali, sentenced to life imprisonment for the racially motivated

murder of Ross Parker Ross Andrew Parker (17 August 198421 September 2001), from Peterborough, England, was a seventeen-year-old white English male murdered in an unprovoked racially motivated crime. He bled to death after being stabbed, beaten with a hammer an ...

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

, shortly after the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...

. * January 2004 – David Holland, former drummer with the

heavy metal band Heavy metal (or simply metal) is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the United Kingdom and United States. With roots in blues rock, psychedelic rock and acid rock, heavy metal bands developed ...

, Judas Priest, sentenced to eight years for attempted rape and

indecent assault Indecent assault is an offence of aggravated assault in some common law-based jurisdictions. It is characterised as a sex crime and has significant overlap with offences referred to as sexual assault. England and Wales Indecent assault was a broa ...

against a 17-year-old male with learning difficulties. * March 2007 – Andrew Randall, sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder and sexual abuse of his baby daughter. * July 2009 – Murdo Mackay and Anrew Mackenzie, directors of

Derby County F.C. Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Derby, Derbyshire, England. In 2022, it was announced that DCFC was acquired by Clowes Developments (UK) Ltd, a Derbyshire-based property group. Founded in 1884 ...

, sentenced to three years (reduced to 18 months on appeal) for fraudulently claiming "commission" for brokering a loan for the club. * November 2013 – Anxiang Du, sentenced to life imprisonment for the 2011 murder of the Ding family. * September 2022 – Joshua Kendall, sentenced to life imprisonment for the attempted murder of a police officer in HM Prison Onley.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Court information
Court buildings in England Crown Court buildings Buildings and structures in Northampton Government buildings completed in 1991