Swansea Crown Court is a

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 ...

venue which deals with criminal cases at St Helen's Road in

Swansea Swansea (; cy, Abertawe ) is a coastal city and the second-largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Swansea ( cy, links=no, Dinas a Sir Abertawe). The city is the twenty-fifth largest in ...

, Wales.

History

Until the late 1980s, judicial hearings in Swansea were held in the west wing of

Swansea Guildhall The Guildhall ( cy, Guildhall Abertawe) is one of the main office buildings of the City and County of Swansea Council. The Guildhall complex, which includes the City Hall, Brangwyn Hall (concert hall) and the County Law Courts for Swansea, is a ...

. However, as the number of court cases in southwest Wales grew, it became necessary to commission a dedicated courthouse for criminal matters. The site chosen, which was close to the guildhall but on the opposite side of St Helen's Road, had been occupied by an old tramway depot. The new building was designed by the Welsh architect Sir Alex Gordon in the

neoclassical style Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassicism, Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The pr ...

, built in

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...

at a cost of £5.2 million, and was completed in 1988. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of eleven bays facing onto St Helen's Road. The central bay featured a wide opening on the ground floor and a prominent bipartite

oriel window An oriel window is a form of bay window which protrudes from the main wall of a building but does not reach to the ground. Supported by corbels, bracket (architecture), brackets, or similar cantilevers, an oriel window is most commonly found pro ...

on the first floor which was enhanced by a carved Royal coat of arms placed between the two parts. The central bay was flanked by two full-height triangular

piers Piers may refer to: * Pier, a raised structure over a body of water * Pier (architecture), an architectural support * Piers (name), a given name and surname (including lists of people with the name) * Piers baronets, two titles, in the baronetages ...

. Internally, the building was laid out to accommodate three courtrooms. The custodial area was extensively refurbished at a cost of £220,000 in August 2013. Notable cases have included the trial and wrongful conviction, now recognised as a serious miscarriage of justice, of Yusef Abdullahi, Stephen Miller and Tony Paris, in November 1990, for the

murder of Lynette White Lynette Deborah White (5 July 1967 – 14 February 1988) was murdered on 14 February 1988 in Cardiff, Wales. South Wales Police issued a Facial composite, photofit image of a bloodstained, white male seen in the vicinity at the time of the murd ...

. Other cases have also included the trial and conviction of Jason Richards and Ben Hope, in February 2013, for the

murder of Aamir Siddiqi Aamir Siddiqi was a boy from Cardiff, South Wales. In April 2010, at the age of 17, Siddiqi was killed in his family's home in the Roath area of Cardiff. On 1 February 2013 Jason Richards, 38, and Ben Hope, 39, were convicted of his murder; the ...

, and the trial and conviction of an unnamed man, in October 2019, on 36 counts of rape and one count of an assault by penetration against his own daughters.

References

{{reflist Crown Court buildings Buildings and structures in Swansea Court buildings in Wales Government buildings completed in 1988