0:00
Liz, deeply concerning that the public can't access historic rape gang trial transcripts
0:07
These aren't just legal documents. They're historical documents that tell the story in detail of some of the worst crimes in our recent history
0:17
how they were committed, how they were covered up and enabled, and then belatedly finally exposed and brought to justice
0:25
and the fact that some judges are choosing to deny organisations the right to have these, to put them in the public domain
0:34
despite the fact that these were trials that were heard in public anyway, this was all on the public record
0:40
And it's only when people hear the full unalloyed details of these cases
0:46
that actually it's often brought home to people. If you remember at the beginning of the year
0:50
it was when court transcripts began to circulate on social media that people realised that grooming gangs was really a euphemism
0:58
and that this was absolutely abhorrent practices. And there was a fantastic speech in the House of Commons the other day
1:05
by my colleague Katie Lam, where very powerfully she read out an extract from one of the transcripts
1:11
and the House was silent and her speech has gone viral and millions of people have watched it
1:17
So it's incredibly important that the full details of these trials gets into the public domain so people can understand what happened and the public and victims can get the transparency that they crave And because some of these are being almost covered up by judges
1:35
the victims and the public, I think, are right to ask, in whose interests are they serving
1:40
What possible rationale is there for doing this? And it just adds further insult to injury to the victims of these terrible crimes
1:47
Well, if it's so bad that there's a sense from judges that we need to be shielded from the content of it
1:53
then maybe that does really seriously imply how absolutely awful the situation is and how widespread it is
1:58
But is this within the current Justice Minister Shibana Mahmood's brief to do something about this
2:02
to issue some kind of ruling or diktat, that these need to be released? Is she capable of doing that
2:07
Yes. Well, it's generally left to the individual judges to make their decisions
2:12
But what we're seeing is that there's almost a postcode lottery where some judges are saying that the transcript should be released and some are not
2:21
and they're applying the law in an uneven way in different parts of the country
2:25
which just once again creates a sense of unfairness, ladling unfairness upon unfairness
2:31
in this most terrible situation of the grooming gang scandal. And so what I'm asking for is the Justice Secretary to intervene
2:39
maybe with the Lady Chief Justice as well as the most senior judge in the country
2:44
release these transcripts so they can finally be in the public domain
2:48
Can we have the disinfectant that comes through openness and transparency? And I think that Shabana Mahmood should do this
2:56
I've written to her today asking her to do it
