| Woolwich Crown Court | |
|---|---|
 Aerial photograph of Woolwich Crown Court | |
| Location | Belmarsh Way, Thamesmead |
| Coordinates | 51°29′48″N0°05′24″E / 51.4967°N 0.0900°E |
| Built | 1993 |
| Architect | Property Services Agency |
| Architectural style(s) | Modernist style |
  Shown in London | |
Woolwich Crown Court, or more accurately the Crown Court at Woolwich, is a Crown Court venue which deals with criminal cases on Belmarsh Way, Thamesmead, London, England.
In the early 1990s, the Lord Chancellor's Department decided to commission a courthouse adjacent to HM Prison Belmarsh so offenders did not have to be transported to court by vehicle. [1]
The building was designed by the Property Services Agency in the Modernist style, built by Hamills Construction in brick and concrete and was completed in 1993. [2] [3] The design involved a broadly symmetrical main frontage with an entrance block flanked by two wings, laid out a slightly different angles, facing onto Belmarsh Way. The entrance block featured a portico formed by columns supporting a glass canopy and was surmounted by a drum-like structure. The entrance block and the wings were faced in light grey cladding. Internally, the building was laid out with six courtrooms. [4]
Woolwich Crown Court was intended to serve as a high-security courtroom and became the preferred venue for terrorism trials. A tunnel was established linking the court to the maximum-security HM Prison Belmarsh. [5] This provided a secure route for bringing defendants in high-profile terrorist cases before the court. Also, armed police were deployed as necessary to provide security. [6] In June 1998, it was the venue for the trial and conviction of defendants charged with conspiracy to cause the 1996 Docklands bombing. [7]
The court was subsequently the venue for the trial and conviction, in June 2007, of the six men accused of attempting the 21 July 2005 London bombings on the London transport network, [8] the trial and conviction, in December 2008, of Bilal Abdullah in connection with the 2007 Glasgow Airport attack, [9] and the trial and conviction, in July 2010, of those charged with offences in connection with the 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot. [10] [11]
The court was also the place for the trial and conviction, in January 2018, of those charged with offences in connection with the 2015 Hatton Garden safe deposit burglary. [12] [13]
The Scottish court in the Netherlands was a special sitting of the High Court of Justiciary set up under Scots law in a former United States Air Force base, Camp Zeist near Utrecht, in the Netherlands, for the trial of two Libyans charged with 270 counts of murder in connection with the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, on 21 December 1988. A school on the former base was converted into a judicial court for the trial.
The Guildford Four and Maguire Seven were two groups of people, mostly Northern Irish, who were wrongly convicted in English courts in 1975 and 1976 of the Guildford pub bombings of 5 October 1974 and the Woolwich pub bombing of 7 November 1974. All the convictions were eventually overturned in 1989 and 1991 after long campaigns for justice, and the cases, along with those of the Birmingham Six, diminished public confidence in the English criminal justice system.
His Majesty's Prison Belmarsh is a Category A men's prison in Thamesmead, southeast London, England. The prison is used for high-profile cases, particularly those concerning national security. Within the grounds is the High Security Unit (HSU), which consists of 48 single cells. It is run by His Majesty's Prison Service. The prison has been called "Britain's Guantanamo Bay" due to the long-term detention of terrorism suspects without charge. Considered the toughest prison in the UK, Belmarsh is also notoriously known as "Hellmarsh" owing to the high number of physical and authority abuses reported by both the prison's inmates, and by human rights activists.
The Guildford pub bombings occurred on Saturday 5 October 1974 when the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) detonated two 6-pound (2.7-kilogram) gelignite bombs at two pubs in Guildford, Surrey, England. The pubs were targeted that evening because they were popular with British Army personnel stationed at Pirbright barracks. Four soldiers and one civilian were killed. Sixty-five people were wounded.
On 21 July 2005, a Thursday, four attempted bomb attacks by four Islamist extremists disrupted part of London's public transport system as a follow-up attack to the 7 July 2005 London bombings. The explosions occurred around midday at Shepherd's Bush, Warren Street and Oval stations on the London Underground, and on London Buses route 26 in Haggerston. A fifth bomber dumped his device without attempting to set it off.
Muktar Said Ibrahim, also known as Muktar Mohammed Said, is an Eritrean-British terrorist. He is serving a life sentence with a minimum term of 40 years after being found guilty of involvement in the attempted 21 July attacks on London's public transport system in 2005. He attempted to detonate a device on a London bus in Haggerston and was arrested sharing an apartment with Ramzi Mohammed on 29 July 2005. During the arrest, which culminated in Ramzi and Ibrahim standing near-naked on their balcony to avoid tear gas that police had used.
Yasin Hassan Omar is a British Somali convicted terrorist. Omar was arrested and tried for his involvement in the attempted 21 July attacks on London's public transport system. He was found guilty of attempting to detonate a device on the London Underground Victoria line tube train between Warren Street and Oxford Circus tube stations. In August 2005 police gave his age as 24 after his arrest.
Hamdi Adus Isaac is an Islamic terrorist who was found guilty of having placed an explosive at the Shepherd's Bush tube station during the failed 21 July 2005 London bombings. Born in Ethiopia, Hussain is a naturalised British citizen married to Yeshshiemebet Girma.
Gilbert "Danny" McNamee is a former electronic engineer from Crossmaglen, Northern Ireland, who was wrongly convicted in 1987 of conspiracy to cause explosions, including the Provisional Irish Republican Army's (IRA) Hyde Park bombing on 20 July 1982.
The Hyde Park and Regent's Park bombings were carried out on 20 July 1982 in London, England. Members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) detonated two improvised explosive devices during British military ceremonies in Hyde Park and Regent's Park, both in central London.
Liam Campbell is an Irish republican from Dundalk, County Louth. He was found liable under civil proceedings for the 1998 Omagh bombing, which killed 29 people.
Colm Murphy was an Irish republican who was the first person to be convicted in connection with the Omagh bombing, but whose conviction was overturned on appeal. While awaiting a retrial on criminal charges, Murphy was found liable for the bombing in a civil trial, along with Michael McKevitt, Liam Campbell and Seamus Daly. He was subsequently cleared of criminal charges in February 2010.
The 2007 royal blackmail plot was a UK scandal in which two men attempted to blackmail a relation of the British royal family. The relative of the royal family was alleged to have been involved in activities involving drug taking, and performing sexual activity on a male aide.
The 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot was a terrorist plot to detonate liquid explosives, carried aboard airliners travelling from the United Kingdom to the United States and Canada, disguised as soft drinks. The plot was discovered by British Metropolitan Police during an extensive surveillance operation. As a result of the plot, unprecedented security measures were initially implemented at airports. The measures were gradually relaxed during the following weeks, but passengers are still not allowed to carry liquid containers larger than 100 ml onto commercial aircraft in their hand luggage in the UK and most other countries, as of 2024.
Preston Crown Court, or more properly the Crown Court at Preston, is a criminal court on the Ring Way in Preston, Lancashire, England. The court is based on two sites in the city; Preston Combined Court Centre on Ringway and Sessions House on Lancaster Road. As a first tier court centre, the court deals with all types of cases that are heard in the Crown Court as well as being a trial centre for civil High Court cases; it is also a venue for the County Court where smaller civil cases and family cases are dealt with.
His Majesty’s Prison Isis is a Category C male Young Offenders Institution, located in the Thamesmead area of the Royal Borough of Greenwich, in south-east London, England. Isis Prison is operated by His Majesty's Prison Service, and is situated next to Belmarsh Prison and Thameside Prison.
On the afternoon of 22 May 2013, a British Army soldier, Fusilier Lee Rigby of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, was attacked and killed by Islamist terrorists Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale near the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, southeast London.
In April 2015, an underground safe deposit facility in Hatton Garden, London, owned by Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Ltd., was burgled.
The Woolwich pub bombing was an attack by the Provisional Irish Republican Army on the Kings Arms, Woolwich on the south bank of the Thames in London, United Kingdom.