Youth Court

Anyone aged 10 to 17 years old.

There is a section of the Magistrates' court that specialises in juvenile criminal justice and this is known as the YOUTH COURT.
MACKESYS Solicitors regularly represents juveniles at all the Youth Courts in South London, Kent and Surrey
If you are accused jointly with an adult and you both plead not guilty then you will appear in the adult Court until trial. If you plead guilty and your case is suitable it will be remitted to the Youth Court for sentence.
It may be argued by the prosecution that your case should be sent to the Crown Court and the Court is likely to grant such an application if it feels that your offence would carry more than 2 years custody if you were an adult.

You will appear in the adult Magistrates' Court.

No. Members of the public are not allowed into the Youth Courts.

Yes. They will be given the opportunity to attend the hearing although they must specifically make a request to the court if they want to do so.

If you are under 16, then at least one of your parents or a legal guardian must accompany you. If they do not attend then the case may be put off and a summons issued by the court for them to attend on a later occasion. If you are over 16 it is not compulsory for your parent(s) or guardian(s) to attend court with you but it is advisable.

Possibly. The press will be allowed to attend the court but there are restrictions on what they are allowed to report and they are generally not allowed to publish your name.

This will very much depend on the charge you are facing, the circumstances of your case and whether you have been in trouble before.
If you contact MACKESYS Solicitors we will be able to give you advice as to the likely sentence you will receive.
Below are some common sentences imposed in the Youth Court with which you might like to familiarise yourself.

This is where the court decide to 'discharge' the matter instead of sentencing you. Providing you do not re-offend during a specific period of time (usually 1 - 2 years) then nothing more will happen. However, if you do commit another offence during that time period then you may be re-sentenced for the original offence, as well as for the additional 'breach' offence.

If you are under 16 then the court will order that your parents pay the fine. If you are 16 or 17 then whether or not your parents are ordered to pay the fine will depend on whether you have any income and if you do how much it is. You should therefore be ready for you or your parents to give details of your income to MACKESYS Solicitors and the Court.

This will require your parents or legal guardians to agree to exercise proper control over you for a fixed period of time. Failure to do so may result in a financial penalty.

You would be under the supervision of a social worker for up to a period of 3 years. If you were to breach the order then you would be returned to Court for re-sentencing where the court may:
· Impose a fine of up to £1,000
· Impose a curfew order or an attendance centre order
· Discharge the supervision order and re-sentence you for the original offence

This is a programme under which you would be supervised by a probation officer, social worker or a member of the Youth Offending Team for up to 3 months. You would be required to follow specific instructions, such as:
· participating in specified activities
· to stay away from specific places
· to attend an attendance centre
· to make reparation to the victim

This will include some form of compensation for the benefit of your victim or the community as a whole. This could involve an apology, fixing any damage or doing something for the community and can last over a maximum period of 24 months.

This can be used by the court only if you are under the age of 16. You may be ordered to go to an Attendance Centre for between 12 - 36 hours. At the centre you will be required to take part in some form of physical activity as well as other activities such as woodwork or cookery classes.

You and your parents may be required to attend a family counselling session.

This may prevent you from entering specific places or from entering during specific hours of the day. The maximum period it can be imposed for is 6 months and will last from between 2 and 12 hours on the days when it is effective.

The following sentences are also available to the court when dealing with people aged 16 or 17 only:

It is very similar to the supervision order above but instead of a Youth Offending Team worker supervising it would be a probation officer.

This requires the completion of unpaid work for a total period of between 40 and 240 hours.

This is a combination of the two orders as outlined above.

Youths can receive custodial sentences but you cannot be sent to an adult prison. Only people over the age of 21 can be sent to prison. Instead, the court can sentence you to custody, that is place you in secure accommodation, with the following:

This is available to the court if you are under 18 and you have been convicted of an offence which is punishable with imprisonment in the case of an adult. The length of the sentence can be between four months and two years.

This is available to the court for offenders between the age of 18 and 20 inclusive who have been convicted of an offence which is punishable with imprisonment in the case of an adult.