Sheriff criticises "appalling" jail video link

A sheriff refused to deal with cases via video link after experiencing a poor connection to a prison.

Sheriff Graeme Napier suffered loud and distorted feedback at Aberdeen Sheriff Court while he was connected to HMP Grampian.

According to the Evening Express, he told court staff: “This is just appalling. I can’t deal with anything from prison by video link. It’s simply not working.”

As a result of the issue, full committal cases were moved to a different courtroom before a different sheriff for the afternoon.

A spokesperson for the Scottish Courts & Tribunals Service said: “We can confirm that audio difficulties were encountered during a video link hearing being attended from prison by an accused person.

“Investigations into the cause of the problem are being carried out. A number of hearings were rescheduled but no business was lost.”

A number of court cases have been conducted using video links to the accused at a police station or prison, in response to COVID-19, but the technology has faced criticism and links do not always work properly.

Some lawyers have also criticised the technology. Alex Burn, the defence solicitor involved in the case which caused the problem, said: “In general terms I don’t like video links. Secondly, I thought Sheriff Napier was quite right.

“It’s unclear whether the accused person fully understands what’s going on. I think everybody in court was left bemused by the poor performance of the technology, and it’s just unacceptable.”

He added that he believed accused persons should just be brought to court, rather than have to deal with the video link technology.