Leeds Crown Court
Encyclopedia
Leeds Crown Court is the highest court in West Yorkshire
, England
. The buildings are situated in Westgate in Leeds city centre
, adjacent to Leeds magistrates courts.
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. The buildings are situated in Westgate in Leeds city centre
Leeds City Centre
Leeds city centre is the central business district of Leeds, England. It is within the Leeds Central parliamentary constituency, represented by Hilary Benn as MP since a by-election in 1999...
, adjacent to Leeds magistrates courts.
Notable cases
- Zsiga PankotiaZsiga PankotiaZsiga Pankotia was a 31-year-old Hungarian-born murderer who was hanged on the 29 June 1961 at Armley Gaol, Leeds, West Yorkshire, . He was hanged by Harry Allen for the murder of Jack Eli Myers in a house burglary in the city's affluent Roundhay district...
- found guilty of murder, became the last man to be hanged at Armley Gaol in 1961. - John PoulsonJohn PoulsonJohn Garlick Llewellyn Poulson was a British architect and businessman who caused a major political scandal when his use of bribery was disclosed in 1972. The highest-ranking figure to be forced out was Conservative Home Secretary Reginald Maudling...
- found guilty of fraud and gaoled for five years (a sentence that was later increased to seven) in 1974. - Gary Hart - guilty of causing the Selby rail crashSelby rail crashThe Great Heck rail crash, widely known as the Selby rail crash, was a high-speed train accident that occurred at Great Heck near Selby, North Yorkshire, England on the morning of 28 February 2001...
and gaoled for five years (released after serving half his sentence) in 2001. - Nick GriffinNick GriffinNicholas John "Nick" Griffin is a British politician, chairman of the British National Party and Member of the European Parliament for North West England....
- acquitted of incitement to racial hatred in 2006. - Wearside JackWearside JackWearside Jack is the nickname given to John Samuel Humble , a hoaxer who pretended to be the Yorkshire Ripper in the late 1970s. In 2006 he was convicted for perverting the course of justice.-Taunting letters:...
- The Yorkshire Ripper hoaxer. - Karen Matthews and Michael Donovan - found guilty in December 2008 of the kidnapping of Shannon Matthews, child neglectChild neglectChild neglect is defined as:# "the failure of a person responsible for a child’s care and upbringing to safeguard the child’s emotional and physical health and general well-being"...
and peverting the course of justice. The pair were each sentenced to eight years in prison in January 2009.