Being in a court house for the fist time was nothing short of a weird experience. I walked into court room number four of Thames Magistrate’s Court, Bow, expecting to see a standard setup and I did, but for the absence of a defendant.
Everyone else was present: the judge, a clerk, prosecutors, a reporter – just no sign of an offender. My confusion ended when one of the 30-odd black LCD screens suspended on the courtroom walls was switched on, revealing a mysterious image of two chairs and a table.
For a moment it felt as if I had not walked into a court case but instead into a screening of Netflix’s new alternative to either “Making a Murderer” or “The Confession Tapes” – both highly recommended by the way. Instead into shot came a man in a suit: a lawyer or solicitor of some sort. At this point it was clear that these proceedings were being held virtually. However, there was nothing ‘virtual’ about the case in hand – on which a man’s freedom depended.
At that point the judge asked the man in the suit for a ‘Mr. Dinky’ and moments later we were greeted with the presence of the man in question. The quality of the video was so poor that you couldn’t make out any of Mr. Dinky’s features – just that he was probably black, and sported a Jackson 5-style ‘fro.
Mr. Dinky was being held on two charges, including one of possession of an offensive weapon – an offence that is being treated very seriously at the moment due to a spike in gun and knife crime across London. As Dinky had previously pleaded guilty to his charges, the session was quick one, almost an in-and-out kind of thing. The judge informed Mr. Dinky of his future court appearance dates before breaking the news that he would not be allowed bail for a couple of reasons.
One was that the court had reason to believe that Mr. Dinky would skip bail, because he had done it in the past. The other was that the offence was too serious for him to be allowed back out on the streets for now. Fair enough, and the defendant seemed to think so too, because he politely answered the judge’s questions and was very compliant until his dismissal.
It was hard to get to know Mr. Dinky in the short time we had together. An enigmatic, shadowy figure caught up in the UK legal system is all he’ll ever be to me. For what it’s worth, however, I do wish him all the best.
