What happened on the 1st day of the New Ferry Explosion Trial?

                                          

The first day of the trial about an explosion in New Ferry in March 2017 of two defendants started this morning in Court 5-2 on the 5th floor of the Liverpool Crown Court. Due to its high profile nature all the seats in the public gallery were full and the Usher had to find seats elsewhere in the court room for extra people.

The jury wasn’t present for a discussion between Judge Menary QC and the representatives for both defendants as to how long the jury should be allowed to complete the jury questionnaires. The trial is expected to last up to four weeks.

Judge Menary QC did agree an order with the parties for reporting restrictions (specifically delayed reporting) on some aspects of the case. Despite asking the Liverpool Crown Court staff for a copy of this reporting restriction order when the morning’s hearing concluded, at the time of writing the staff have been unable to provide a copy and insisted I email (I have since received an electronic copy this afternoon and made this edit before publication).

The jury are expected to be sworn in possibly tomorrow afternoon and some material in the bundles will be changed (one reason given was to correct an incorrect address).

There will be no sitting on Friday due to a Regional Sentencing Seminar. Defendant Pascal G Blasio was re-bailed on the condition that he appear again for tomorrow’s hearing.

Due to the ongoing nature of the trial comments are turned off.

A report on day 2 can be read at What happened on the 2nd day of the New Ferry Explosion Trial?

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