On the 4th February 2023 a group of eleven pupils travelled from Somerset to Southampton to compete in the Independent Schools’ Mock Trial Competition.
Congratulations to the winning team of this year’s Independent Schools Mock Trial Competition (Southampton Crown Court Regional Heat). For months, pupils have been studying two criminal cases and preparing legal arguments. On Saturday, they finally had the opportunity to act the parts of barristers, witness, usher, court clerk and juror in a Crown Court with a judge present. It was a fierce contest but Downside’s team made it to the final and won the competition!
Review from Lower Sixth pupil, Edith:
The competition is as it sounds: we set up a criminal trial and had the opportunity to argue our cases against other schools and before a real judge. In order to compete we had to organise barristers and witnesses beforehand, and we could practise questioning our own witnesses. The court itself made everything feel a great deal more serious than when we had practised once a week at school and the nervousness was only heightened when we were introduced to the judges who were dresses in gowns and wigs; everything felt remarkably real.
There were three schools competing: Badminton School, Maynard School and us. Upon arrival there was a competitive atmosphere, so we sat down to prepare our witnesses; for the first case the barristers were Constantine and Maks, and the witnesses were me, Edith, playing the part of a nosey and pious neighbour while Phoebe was a down to earth, intelligent policewoman. We were the prosecution. Constantine and Maks did an amazing job, portraying the defendant as an idiotic teenager and acting quickly in their cross examinations with both their opening and closing speeches being spoken clearly. On the stand, it felt far more tense than normal, and Phoebe and I quickly realised that the jovial caricatures we were used to using when answering the questioned needed to be toned down. While we did not convince the jury, this did not really matter, what mattered were the points. Thankfully, we came out on top in that respect.
The next barristers to take their case were Bryn and Bea, standing for the defence. Bea’s heart-breaking opening speech showed the jury that Maya was not a hardy drug dealer, but actually an innocent young person, trying to scrape together enough money to go to university to study her passion: Mathematics. Aristo was the other witness for the case: playing Maya’s mathematics teacher and describing her character as admirable. Bryn and Bea managed to not only win the jury over, but also managed to win a substantial number of points.
Finally it was me and Aristo’s turn to be the defence for Bea, who had allegedly started a fight outside of a nightclub. Our speeches played on the cost-of-living crisis and Bea’s character; however the winning argument was given to me by Aristo, concerning how unrealistic it would be that someone would swing a punch with their right hand and such a punch would land on the right hand side of the face. Bryn and Bea, our witnesses, did a fantastic job of being bouncers – it was a testament to their dramatic talents that they were convincingly aggressive and burly – the four of us managed to claim a victory.
The people who were not taking part in our cases went to sit in on the other courtroom where one acted as jury – also giving us a chance to assess our competition and see if we could get any ideas from them. We noticed that they were far more rigorous with sticking to what was said in their witness statements which allowed us to target our questions more carefully and ensure what we were asking was not speculation, but information included in the statements. We also saw that the other competitors had memorised their speeches. We had not and were still reading from flash cards and papers.
After lunch it was time for the big announcement: which two schools would be in the final. Although we had actually done very well and both our witnesses and barristers had performed outstandingly, we were by no means expecting to make the final as the other two schools had memorised their speeches, had set questions to ask their witnesses, and came across as slightly more measured than we did. However, much to our surprise, we made it through and were set to compete against Badminton School.
Badminton had been doing a very good job all day and came across as witty and assertive. Maya and Oliwia were our barristers; Maks and Constantine were our witnesses. We were the prosecution. This meant we had to sit through the defence barristers making a very strong case against Constantine, however in her cross-examination Oliwia managed to pick up on the witness making various mistakes, such that the witness said she was “misspeaking” and apologised. Both Maks and Constantine’s main strength was how they managed to come across as honest and likable as they were able to talk confidently about their supposed altercation – a strength which is testament to their in-depth preparation and hard work. Maya and Oliwia both gave very strong speeches, which must have had a hand in winning us the competition, as they were clear and all they said was obviously backed up by their questioning and cross-examinations
When the non-competing members from each school, acting as the jury, went to discuss the verdict, it was unsurprisingly an even split as we all voted for our own schools. However, much to our dismay, Aristo decided to be the level-headed one and said he would vote for Badminton School as the jury is not the overall deciding factor of who wins the competition.
Thankfully, the vote of the jury did not reflect the outcome of the competition and safe to say it shocked us to hear that we had won and Dolu went and collected our trophy for us.
Even if the result had not been so favourable, it was a fun day. Everybody played their part and the girls we met from the other schools were lovely; we are still in contact with some of them. The atmosphere all day was one of hard work but also of fun. On the way back we stopped at Westquay for a celebratory dinner, and I think I speak for everyone when I say that the hard work and the effort we put in going to the meetings, writing speeches, and crafting characters for our witnesses, was worth it in every way. It was a fantastic experience, and we are so grateful to Mr. Walters and Dr. Tapia for organising the day and driving us down. The result was just the icing on the cake. There are some names that have not been mentioned in this review however they deserve to be as everyone played an equal part, so enclosed below is a list of all who participated and what part they played.
Aristo (L6 Barlow) – Barrister; Witness Casey Carillo
Bea (L6 Isabella) – Barrister; Witness Eden Tomlin
Bryn (L6 Smythe) – Barrister; Witness Jesse Eccles
Ciara (L6 Caverel) – Court Clerk
Constantine (L6 Roberts) – Barrister; Defendant Cameron Porter
Dolu (L6 Barlow) – Usher
Edith (L6 Isabella) – Barrister; Witness Taylor Brookes
Maks (L6 Roberts) – Barrister; Witness Shiloh Hoffman
Maya (U6 Caverel) – Barrister; Defendant Jamie Cuthbert
Oliwia (U6 Caverel) – Barrister
Pheobe (5F Caverel) – Witness PC Rogers
Mr Walters – Chauffeur of minibus
Dr. Tapia – Acting coach for witnesses