Apologies for not publishing the update yet from Day 3 of the Sandy Ezekiel trial. After getting up at 5am yesterday, working in the early morning, heading over to Maidstone for the entire day, I got back late and ended up in another meeting till late.
I'll hopefully manage to do a combined day 3 and day 4 blog post tonight. The effort of covering trials like this, has highlighted how difficult it is for the public to proactively engage in open justice. And why it would be so much better if information coming out from active trials in terms of reference documents and statements could be made more freely available.
Yesterday saw the reading aloud of Sandy Ezekiel's entire police interview from 2011. If I was a fast speed typist I could have written it all down, because it was read out in open court. Yet a copy is not available during the trial and it's not clear to me what happens to these documents after the trial has finished. If I wish to have court transcripts I will have to apply to a judge and pay for them.
So, in brief. Yesterday, day 3 saw:
- cross examination of Stephen Parry of Parry Law who undertook conveyancing for the purchase of 12A King Street.
- The reading out of two witness statements from Mr Alan Douglas, the previous owners of 12A King Street.
- The reading out of Sandy Ezekiel's police statement by Det. Sergeant Adrian Brown (Fraud Squad).
I'm tweeting on @margatearchi and using the hashtag #ezekieltrial
Lunch was terrible in Maidstone. Seriously, Margate foodies, we do it so much better.
Last thoughts before I leave, are that residents took much harder cross examination during the Arlington Margate Public Inquiry.
There's also another citizen court reporter session going on at the moment. Follow @newsbrooke
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