Magistrates' Court Judgements - can I find them?

[Mazzini]

Does anyone know where I can (discreetly) find judgements and sentences delivered by England's Magistrates' Courts. I have tried to find links from H.M. Court website & my local Magistrates' Court website but am having no luck.  My local newspaper sometimes writes up a few cases so I would have thought these details would be for public knowledge but I can't find them...Help much appreciated...

[scott135]

Magistrates Courts in England and Wales deal with between 95% and 98% of all criminal cases in the first instance. As such, I would have thought the results of trials and guilty pleas are too numerous to record in a central database. I know of none.

However, if you know the specific Court where the case you have in mind was heard, then an enquiry to their Justices Clerk or Head of Legal Services might produce an answer as results are public knowledge.

Local newspaper editors rarely seem to send reporters to attend court nowadays although Magistrates would no doubt encourage a higher attendance as it is only through the public having a wider knowledge of what punishment is imposed in those Courts that society will better understand the link between illegal acts and their proportionate penalties.

[lucyshandbag]

someone i knew was up in crown court a couple of months ago and i just phoned the court up and asked them, they told me the date they were next in court and when i phoned up again on the given date (about 4 weeks later) they gave me the verdict and even told me how long they had gone to prison for.