Criminal trials to be televised for the first time in UK tomorrow in history-making sentencing | The Sun
A CRIMINAL sentencing will be televised for the first time ever in the UK tomorrow.
Plans are in place to film Ben Oliver's sentencing at the Old Bailey for killing his 74-year-old grandad David Oliver.
The footage will then be broadcast on news channels and made available through Sky News, BBC, ITN and the PA news agency.
Only Judge Sarah Munro QC will be filmed as she hands down her sentencing remarks to protect the privacy of victims, witnesses and jurors.
The move follows plans to open up some of the most high-profile courts in the UK and allow the public to get a glimpse into the criminal justice system.
Deputy Prime Minister, Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary Dominic Raab said: "Opening up the courtroom to cameras to film the sentencing of some the country's most serious offenders will improve transparency and reinforce confidence in the justice system.
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"The public will now be able to see justice handed down, helping them understand better the complex decisions judges make."
A change in the law was made in 2020 to allow cameras into Britain's crown courts but the scheme was delayed due to Covid.
Currently, the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court allow filming but it has previously been blocked elsewhere.
Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, Lord Burnett of Maldon, hailed the move as a "very positive" step in promoting open justice.
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He said: "It's something that I was really keen should happen and I started working on it when I became Lord Chief Justice in 2017.
"The law was introduced in 2020. And we all hoped that we would start filming sentencing remarks in high-profile criminal cases in the summer of 2020 and were it not for Covid, that would have happened, but now it is happening.
"I think it's an exciting development, because it will help the public to understand how and why criminals get the sentences that they do in these very high-profile cases."
The official pointed out sentences are already passed in open court with the press and public present but said broadcasting trials would be difficult.
John Battle, head of legal and compliance at ITN, and chairman of the Media Lawyers Association, said it was a "landmark moment for open justice".
He added: "This reform reflects the public's right to see justice being done in their courts.
"Court reporting is vital to democracy and the rule of law and this long overdue change is welcomed.
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Oliver will be sentenced tomorrow in one of the Old Bailey's most historic courtrooms.
The "troubled and angry young man" stabbed his bedbound grandad to death in Mottingham, South London, in January last year.
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