Judges trained to protect themselves from violence in court

Telegraph

16 hours ago

Judges and magistrates are to get compulsory security training to protect them against rising violence and abuse from members of the public in civil courts.
They have been issued with 'essential' training, which must be completed by March next year, to protect them from PVPs, or 'potentially violent people'.
The new package is designed not to counter criminals but to protect the judiciary from ordinary members of the public participating in civil courts such as employment tribunals, family and coroner courts.
It includes guidance from the HM Courts and Tribunal (HMCTS) on physical security based on five key actions – 'deter, detect, delay, mitigate and respond'.
Role play films
Judges are also shown a series of shocking 'role play' films where people lose their temper in court. In a tribunal, an employer shouts: 'Call yourself a judge? You're a f---ing disgrace.'
In the family court, a swearing man aggressively approaches the judge, before the film freezes. And in a coroner's court, the father of a child who has died by suicide shouts at the judge: 'Just make a f---ing decision. I just want to see my son buried, for Christ's sake.'
The training also includes personal testimony from senior judicial figures who have faced dangerous real-life scenarios. District Judge McIlwaine recounts how someone in his court threw water over a barrister and sprayed water around the court before hurling the jug.
Judge Barry Clarke, the president of the employment tribunals (England and Wales), recalls one litigant attacked the opposing counsel before chasing the judge down the corridor.
Senior coroner Heidi Connor describes how the mother of a child who took their own life smashed the courtroom door before banging her head against the wall threatening to kill herself. She was involved in a second case when there was a 'riot' in the court until someone was found with an 'improvised Taser'.
An expert from the College of Policing gives vital tips in each case on how to deal with the escalating tensions while Matthew Braham, the HMCTS security chief, points to measures taken to ensure physical security with emergency plans, panic alarms and experienced court security officers on hand.
The guidance states: 'HMCTS operates a holistic, multi-layered approach to physical security, utilising the national protective security authority's 'deter, detect, delay, mitigate, respond' methodology.
'In brief, this refers to the need for multiple 'layers' of security controls, each layer being made up of several individual security controls acting as part of an overall system wherein the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.'
Deterrence means creating a 'hard target' so an attacker decided not to act in the first place, detection allows security officers to intervene, while delaying involves introducing barriers and obstacles to slow the progress of an attack. Mitigating an incident reduces its impact and responding brings it to an end.
Lord Justice Green, the senior presiding judge, said: 'Judicial security is of the utmost importance. Threats to security come from many sources, which includes litigants, and those associated with them.
'Your ability to do right, by all manner of people, without fear or favour, which is the very essence of your judicial oath and your function, is placed at risk if threats are made which seek to sway you one way or another in the difficult decisions you take on a daily basis.
'This training package focuses upon your safety in court and hearing rooms and is, but one component of a much broader strategy designed to protect the judiciary. The training is intended to assist you, in a practical way, to remain safe whilst you perform your judicial tasks.'