Northampton Crown Court

Judicial building in Newport, Wales

Shown in Northamptonshire

Northampton Crown Court is a Crown Court venue which deals with criminal cases at Lady's Lane in Northampton, England.

History

Until the late 1980s, criminal court hearings in Northampton were held in the Sessions House.^[1]^[2] However, as the number of court cases in Northampton grew, it became necessary to commission a more substantial courthouse for criminal matters. The site selected by the Lord Chancellor's Department had accommodated a series of rows of terraced housing (Kerr Street and Park Street) before the area was cleared.^[3]

The building was designed by Kit Allsopp architects,^[4] built in buff stone at a cost of £11.5 million,^[5] and was completed in 1987.^[6] The design involved two gabled sections connected by a recessed glass atrium facing onto Lady's Lane. The right hand gabled section was fenestrated by a small square window on the ground floor and featured a prominent Royal coat of arms mounted on the brickwork at first floor level. Internally, the building was equipped with four courtrooms.^[7] The design won the Summer Exhibition Award from the Royal Academy of Arts in 1986.^[6] As a second-tier court, the complex was originally commissioned to deal solely with criminal cases,^[8] but was later remodelled to include provision for the County Court, which deals with civil cases, and the Family Court as well.^[9]

Notable cases

Notable cases heard at the courthouse include:

December 2002 – Shaied Nazir, Ahmed Ali Awan and Sarfraz Ali, sentenced to life imprisonment for the racially motivated murder of Ross Parker in Peterborough, shortly after the September 11 attacks.^[10]
January 2004 – David Holland, former drummer with the heavy metal band, Judas Priest, sentenced to eight years for attempted rape and indecent assault against a 17-year-old male with learning difficulties.^[11]
March 2007 – Andrew Randall, sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder and sexual abuse of his baby daughter.^[12]
July 2009 – Murdo Mackay and Anrew Mackenzie, directors of Derby County F.C., sentenced to three years (reduced to 18 months on appeal) for fraudulently claiming "commission" for brokering a loan for the club.^[13]
November 2013 – Anxiang Du, sentenced to life imprisonment for the 2011 murder of the Ding family.^[14]
September 2022 – Joshua Kendall, sentenced to life imprisonment for the attempted murder of a police officer in HM Prison Onley.^[15]

References

^ The Solicitors' and Barristers' Directory and Diary. Vol. 1. The Law Society. 1986. p. 26.
^ "The noose is around the neck of Northampton's old County Hall". The Nene Quirer. 27 June 2018. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
^ "Ordnance Survey Map". 1914. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
^ Mulcahy, Linda; Rowden, Emma (2019). The Democratic Courthouse: A Modern History of Design, Due Process and Dignity. Taylor and Francis. ISBN 978-0429558689.
^ "Capital Building Programme". Hansard. 26 January 1996. Retrieved 12 March 2023.
^ ^a ^b "British Architecture". Hansard. 30 March 1988. Retrieved 13 September 2019.
^ "Northampton Crown Court". The Law Pages. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
^ Whitaker's Concise Almanack 2012. Whitaker's. p. 320.
^ "Proposal on the provision of court and tribunal services in the Midlands region" (PDF). Ministry of Justice. 16 July 2015. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
^ "Three get life in jail for racist killing". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
^ "Drummer guilty of sex attacks". BBC. 23 January 2004. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
^ "Father who murdered baby daughter jailed for life". The Guardian. 13 March 2007. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
^ "Two guilty of club takeover fraud". BBC News. 25 June 2009. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
^ "Anxiang Du jailed for Ding family murders in Northampton". BBC News. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
^ "Man imprisoned for life after attempted murder of officer in Northamptonshire prison". Northampton Chronicle. 20 September 2022. Retrieved 16 January 2023.