ABSTRACT
In May 2009, Justice Secretary Jack Straw announced the arrival of the ‘Virtual Court’ in the United Kingdom. Established as a pilot, the rst instance linked Charing Cross Police Station with Camberwell Green Magistrates’ Court in South London, and was proposed in order to speed up the processing of minor oences.3 Cases under the new system would be heard within hours of the defendant being charged, and a plea of guilty could see sentencing handed down on the same day, all without needing to leave the police station where the person was rst taken into custody. Initially a voluntary programme requiring informed consent from the defendant; the pilot became compulsory for all rst hearings ‘within certain parameters and conditions’.4 Such moves prompt important questions such as: if a person appearing before a Magistrate in the UK Virtual Court Pilot does not ever physically encounter a courtroom, but only the inside of a police station, is it a problem?
