Family and Friends Forum

It's very quick, about 10 mins my person's was. They ask name, address etc etc. They then read out first charge and the worst if evidence. Then asked what he pleaded to 2nd, 3rd charge as its more or less the same. He plead guilty, then they discussed when sentencing will be then tgat was it basically don't ever apologise for asking a question, even if it's been covered b4 honey. Ask away xx

Good morning scaredansconfused,


And don't worry about asking questions at all!

My partner had his plea hearing at magistrates and it took all of 20 minutes in total. As his offences were classed as 'either way' offenses then what this means in essence is that they can be dealt with either in Magistrates or Crown. They can decide to sentence on the day, however I believe this is quite rare, dependant on a number of factors.



It's essentially name/address and then putting in a guilty/not guilty plea. The judge(s) will then deliberate on whether they can deal with it there at magistrates, or be better off sending it to crown to be dealt with. Our solicitor told us that oftimes it is better to be dealt with at Crown as they have much more experience in these types of cases and have much more scope for the type of punishment the defendant should receive. This also gives time for a Pre Sentence Report to be done. However, they can also be done on the day, if it's being dealt with at Magistrates.



Im sending you a lot of love and strength. You will get through this x



WW x

We thought we'd be at court for 10 minutes but it ended up being a couple of hours, as they hadn't sent all the evidence over for the solicitor to go through, so he said if they didn't send it all Though there would be no plea entered. Then we had to wait for a court slot, they told everyone who was due in court that day to come at the same time and wait. But actual time in the courtroom was only about 15 mins and felt like a lifetime x

Thank you yeah I did I crashed last night after hardly even any sleep for a few nights. Irs a lot to take in fur 10 mins in court and his and his barrister should be in contact for a meeting to go through it with him. Remember the barrister is his voice in court and the most important person right now so stay in Co tact with them my person tortured his and she's been brilliant we are so lucky x

That's good to hear. We're on similar timescales, husband has sentencing in a month's time. It feels so surreal. He's hoping for suspended, and I feel mean for making him confront the possibility that it could be custodial and he needs to prepare for that. He seems happier since the plea hearing, almost like it's got that out the way and he can see a way forward.

We haven't heard from our social worker for weeks. The last call, she said she was looking to close the case as she was happy with how we were managing contact, but it needed to be reviewed by her manager. I'm guessing once he's sentenced she'll be in touch again. We'd like to get unsupervised contact as our kids are teenagers.

Glad that parts over for you both, we got sentencing put back to 4/5 Dec because probation have a back log. They've had a meeting with barrister and she expects the report to be positive. Use this time 5o get character references, docor and counselling reports, call logs to lff and helpline etc. We are all rone now justv waiting on

Probation, then Dec to come. So we will probably be around the same time.

Yeah the barrister has put forward about his mental health etc so it will be unlikely to get put back again. Brilliant you are all sorted. Get as many references as you can. Pack prison bag, this is next on our list 5hu k we have been putting it off makes me sick thinking about it but guess it's reality despite him hving so many mitigating factors and good reports from health workers, counsellwr, phycologest etc (sorry can't spell) there's a gw of us in crown wrou d the same time so at least we all have eachother thank goodness or I'd go mad xx

Hahaha don't worry I was looking fir my glasses everywhere and they were on. My head plus I keep putting things away in weird places (put the loaf in the microwave lol)

Oh my goodness already! He was interviewed by the officer when he signed on the sor same day he pleaded goukty, had a probation meeting he didn't need to attend as barrister was there.,, sent sopo (it's different here in Ireland) and nothing so far. I don't thi k they call it visor here it's something ejse.