Refurbished £26m crown court adjourns criminal sentences during heat while Britons still troop into work

A recently refurbished crown court adjourned key criminal sentences this afternoon due to overwhelming temperatures, while many Britons still troop into the office.

Among the cases postponed at Harrow Crown Court in north-west London was a major firearms sentencing hearing concerning the fatal shooting of PC Sharon Beshenivsky in 2005.

The getaway driver Faisal Razzaq, had been scheduled to be sentenced from 10am, alongside five defendants for their involvement in a conspiracy to supply converted blank-firing weapons.

However, the temperature inside the dock exceeded the maximum 26 degrees permitted under health and safety limits, forcing the proceedings to be postponed until October.

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Further delay to the pressing case comes just two months after the court reopened, following a £26million modernisation refurbishment.

While the court closed, many hardworking Britons, from scaffolders to bus drivers, are cracking on with no air conditioning, and no law forcing employers to call it a day when the heat records are broken.

Multiple fans were reportedly deployed in courtroom one, with one directed at the open door in an attempt to reduce the temperature.

The court floated the idea of sentencing defendants in pairs to keep numbers down, but temperatures remained above the health and safety threshold.

Judge Hannah Kinch said: "I am at a slight at a loss as to what to suggest", admitting Harrow Crown Court had never had to deal with the issue of temperature affecting proceedings.

After rising to allow staff to address the situation, the judge returned at midday to confirm the hearings would be adjourned until October.

The court, constructed in 1991, had been closed after RAAC concrete was discovered, and the building was declared unsafe.

The building's refurbishment was intended to "deliver faster, fairer justice with modern technology and more efficient facilities".

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Sarah Sackman KC, Minister for Courts and Legal Services, had hailed the April reopening as "a major boost to London's overstretched court system, cutting delays and getting justice moving again for Londoners".

Among those to be sentenced today, Razzaq, 45, was previously convicted of manslaughter for his part in the deadly armed robbery at family-run Universal Express travel agents in Bradford, West Yorkshire, in November 2005.

He now faces sentencing for conspiracy to sell prohibited firearms, after receiving weapons intended for onward distribution to criminal buyers.

The five co-defendants include brothers Ricky Dorey from South Ockendon and Robert Dorey from Tilbury, alongside Patrick Loughnane of Hayes and Abdul Saleh of Edgware - all of whom admitted to the same firearms conspiracy offence.

Loughnane's niece, Tammy Rigg, had pleaded guilty to possessing a prohibited firearm and ammunition without a certificate.

Judge Kinch opposed bringing all six defendants into the dock alongside security guards, as it meant 11 people sharing the space, likely pushing temperatures even higher.

"We do need to be able to operate in sensible fashion and not rising every ten minutes," she said.

"I don't see how we can have a hearing where we are constantly stopping and starting and it is not fair to have the defendants kept in very difficult conditions because of the heat in the dock."

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