Lewes Crown Court

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Lewes Crown Court is a Crown Court in Lewes, East Sussex, England. It is housed in the Lewes Combined Court Centre along with Lewes County Court in the High Street in Lewes.

[edit] Cases

It is the first tier Crown Court Centre for the whole of Sussex and is presided over by a Senior Circuit Judge, known as the Resident Judge. There are 4 Crown court rooms at Lewes, 4 at Hove and 2 in Brighton, making it a 10 Crown court centre.There are about 10 full time Circuit Judges based at the Centre, and they are assisted from time to time by part time Judges (known as Recorders.) Each of these Judges are qualified to hear various levels of seriousness of case. The maximum sentence available to the Crown Court is life imprisonnment-this is mandatory in cases of murder. Most cases are heard by a Judge and Jury unless a defendant has pleaded guilty in which case a Judge alone will deal with the matter.

A number of very high profile criminal trials have taken place at Lewes in recent years. Amongst them are the case of Roy Whiting (convicted of the murder of Sarah Payne),Graham Coutts (convicted of the murder of schoolteacher Jane Longhurst), Andrew Wragg (manslaughter of seriusly ill child of the family) These follow on from other notorious murder trials in the past, including John George Haigh (convicted of multiple murders).

The public are allowed to attend these courts at any time, but are subject to search/metal detection equipment on entry. Cameras are not allowed in the building.