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I wouldn’t have wanted one of those. Were you still working for a bank, when called up?

Just £64.95 per day, at best.

I really liked it, the rapport and interactions with fellow jurors was probably the best thing.

In Palmeira Square, awkward, we saw the defendant wandering around with presumably his family. A big 25 year old, quite intimidating. A few days later we found him guilty of GBH and he got 6 years. Throughout he had an ultra confident air.

Similar for me, at Hove. I was selected first thing for a trial that took 4 days, given the Friday off. Second week, 11 of the first week’s jury including myself got selected within a new 12 for a second trial, what are the odds of that? The 11 largely got on very well, we lunched in Palmeira...

I really liked how ours worked. I had taken notes of the judges legal directions. for example a deliberate double negative regarding sexual assaults. Few bothered, they came in handy in the Jury Room. We gently went through what we knew and the law, to the waverers. The two 'hang-ems' tried...

We got two week long trials. I say "we" because randomly from a pool of 50 in the room, 11 of the 12 from the first trial, formed part of the second jury. An eclectic mix of Brighton/Sussex characters ... two 'hang em types' mind made up on seeing the defendants (they didn't brow-beat any of...

We got lucky with a nice bloke, a vicar from Worthing.

And you all watch a DVD first things on Monday mornings on how it all works, plus housekeeping points.

Darryl Aldridge convicted in Sept 13. https://www.antiquestradegazette.com/news/2013/courts-hand-down-sentences-to-auction-house-raiders/

Are you often sitting next to the families of (alleged) crooks?

Similar happened to us. We used to see a (thug) defendent with his family at lunch breaks, high fiving, probably relying on their skewed take on the witnesses cross examinations. He got a shock with the guilty verdicts, then a month later given a 6 year sentence, to add to the long list of...

The same for me. I made notes in Court of key facts, timelines and the judges points of law specifically interpreted for us. For example, one explained a law change on the definition of sexual content. This stopped me from feeling tired and proved valuable later in the Jury room. We too...

We had a couple of 'hang em' jurors who made up their minds after simply seeing the very young defendent for the first time. They were reined in over the coming days, as we carefully went through the evidence and legal directions from the judge.

Did you serve as a juror?

I served on two juries in September 2016 at Hove. I got lucky and only ever sat out one day unpicked (the service calls up far too many people, to add randomness to final jury selected). Loved it. Got on well with my co jurors, a real insight into a great legal system, both judges were highly...