The Sentence

Overview

At the very grass-roots of our legal system are the Magistrates' Courts, before which 90 per cent of all cases in this country are settled. The cases themselves are for the most part of little importance: but behind the bare statistics there are human dramas. Inside Story follows one such case right from the outset. It was heard by the magistrates of King's Lynn, where the accused pleaded guilty to a number of petty thefts. It was not therefore the crime that was in question, but, as so often, the punishment...