A LEADING barrister accused the Government of caring more about fast food than speedy justice as another murder trial was delayed.

The criminal lawyer spoke out over the case of a man accused of a killing in Sussex, whose trial was abandoned during the coronavirus lockdown.

Jessica Clarke, representing the defendant, said the Government has had months to make courts Covid-19 compliant and fit to host jury trials.

She was making a case that her client should be granted bail because the time limit for remanding him in custody had been reached.

“The Government has chosen to invest in restaurants and leisure but they have chosen not to invest – it is the defence submission it is a deliberate decision not to invest – in making courts safe to conduct jury trials,” she said.

The second trial for the defendant had been due to start this week before Her Honour Judge Christine Laing QC.

But the courts were not able to offer a new start date.

Ms Clarke said the Government has spent billions on schemes such as paying people to “eat out to help out”, but has not made new arrangements to hire old court buildings or alternative venues.

She said it would have been a “fraction of the cost” to have adapted courts to make them ready for jury trials.

Ms Clarke said: “It is no longer the pandemic that is the cause of the delay.

“When anybody can see hordes of people streaming out of McDonald’s or going to the gym and yet a man of good character faces an indefinite period of time in custody because there has been a deliberate lack of investment, that cannot, in my submission, be said to be justice.”

But the judge refused her application for bail in the case and said the coronavirus pandemic was “far from over”.

She said the two-metre social distancing rule had only recently been lifted and was still in force “where possible”.

While people can choose to eat out, go to the gym, or visit a pub, jury members do not have that choice and are told they must complete their service, the judge said.

So the safety of jury members, court staff, barristers, witnesses and defendants, and the public, must come first. The case is one of several murder trials which were either stopped during the lockdown or postponed until later this year.