Goldilocks on Trial

This was the last visit of our students’ five visits to St Peter’s School, focusing this time on aspects of the criminal law trial process. Children divided into teams; taking on the roles of judge, jury, prosecution and defence in determining whether Goldilocks was guilty of theft and criminal damage. Certainly the children engaged with the adversarial nature of the process; the heated discussions taking place between the prosecution and the defence prompting frequent cries of “order in the court” from the judiciary. It was established that Goldilocks was aged 10, so she could be held criminally responsible. Stressing that ignorance of the law is no defence, the prosecution demonstrated that Goldilocks entered the bears’ house uninvited, that she ate the bears’ porridge intending to permanently deprive them of it, and that she damaged baby bear’s chair beyond repair when she sat on it. In her defence, Goldilocks claimed that SHE was an innocent victim here; a victim of hunger, a victim of tiredness and a victim of circumstances. The jury from year 5 were not persuaded by this and found Goldilocks guilty of all charges. However, she fared better with the jury of year 4, who delivered a not guilty verdict.  Huge thanks to Louie, Rebecca, Christiana, Simon, El and Jess, who did a fine job in planning this mock trial and in leading their teams on the day.