Topic: Information on a historical court case

[Graeme]

Dear RAWK legal beagles. Approximately somewhere around 2010, somebody I know was convicted of an offence in a magistrates court and sentenced accordingly. For reasons that will be of no interest to anyone I need to obtain information on the case, but it appears that all previous online record of the case has vanished. It was reported in the paper version of Southport Visiter at the time, possibly the Echo too but I can’t find a trace of it online.


I’ve looked on the Law Pages website too but that also drew a blank. Any suggestions apart from trawling months worth of back issues of a paper in a library!?

[Lotus Eater]

Are you looking to see if you can get a VISA to the U.S.?

[Graeme]

No. I am neither the victim or the perpetrator, I just know one of them.

[The Bournemouth Red]

I think they only have to keep digital records for 7 years, so you might be over this.

[Sammy5IsAlive]

Dear RAWK legal beagles. Approximately somewhere around 2010, somebody I know was convicted of an offence in a magistrates court and sentenced accordingly. For reasons that will be of no interest to anyone I need to obtain information on the case, but it appears that all previous online record of the case has vanished. It was reported in the paper version of Southport Visiter at the time, possibly the Echo too but I can’t find a trace of it online.


I’ve looked on the Law Pages website too but that also drew a blank. Any suggestions apart from trawling months worth of back issues of a paper in a library!?

In terms of the publicly held records of magistrates decisions (which I would imagine is limited to outcomes and sentences) I'd contact the court initially to find out where the archives are kept as it seems that this varies regionally.

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/criminal-courts-england-wales-from-1972/#10-magistrates-court-records

I can't vouch for the reliability of this link as it is not 'official' but it suggests that requests can be made for information that is not on the public record. I'm almost certain that any request would have to be made by the person concerned and not by yourself though.

http://hub.unlock.org.uk/knowledgebase/magistrate-court-record/

In terms of newspaper reports if it happened in 2010 there is the possibility that the papers themselves will have more comprehensive electronic archives than are available online. You could have a go at contacting them and seeing if they can do a search of their archive for the name of the person concerned to see what comes up. The material is public record and so I can't see any data protection reason for them refusing to provide it but at the same time I'd imagine they have no legal obligation to do the search so probably unless you get a 'sympathetic ear' your request will just be ignored (at best I'd guess they'd direct you to the library where the records are held and tell you to search for yourself). If you don't ask you don't get I guess? Alternatively the person concerned could make a Subject Access Request (or whatever the equivalent is under GDPR) and see what happens?