Ministers have confirmed today that a ‘super courtroom’ will be created at Manchester Crown Court, Crown Square to deal with so-called ‘multi-hander’ cases, which typically require more space as they involve multiple defendants being tried together such as gang murder trials.
The announcement comes Manchester Hilton hotel, and event spaces in London and Birmingham are among the next 14 venues to be confirmed and will be transformed into so-called ‘Nightingale courts’ – helping to reduce delays and deliver speedier justice for victims while also providing a financial boost to the venues.
The sites will hear mostly non-custodial Crown Court cases, with the total number of Nightingale courtrooms set up across the country to enable more socially distanced trials increasing to 60 by the end of March 2021.
