Ladies in Court

I want to move on now to Connie Bolam, our conscientious objector.

In the 1940s, she was a domestic servant, a role in which she was expected to be obedient and not outspoken.

So when she challenges the court, she's stepping into dangerous territory.

My opinion still stands.

I disagree with war in any shape or form and will not take up any war work.

But you were asked to take up work in the Eye Infirmary.

I would not be offered such work in peacetime, so it must be to help the war effort.

Well, it sounds extraordinary to us that Connie was stepping out of her place, really, as a working class person.

Was there a particular expectation that someone like her should have been a bit quieter and more docile in court?

There was an expectation that those from lower down the social hierarchy would know their place and would be compliant.

But what often brings people to court are moments of social tension.

disharmony, challenges to the social hierarchy.

So courtrooms can easily become these places of defiance where socially marginalised people speak and protest, but it doesn't always go well for them.

Nneka, Connie's case feels a bit close to the modern protester cases that we're familiar with today.

Do courts treat people differently when they're using the courtroom as a

platform for a cause? Potentially, yes.

If there's grandstanding, the judge will not object.

put up with it because there's a real emphasis on not turning the courtroom into a protest stage.

But there's even sort of individuals where on the face of it, it may seem like an individual doesn't have a defence.

But they will still run a trial because there's a possibility that the jury might come along with them with their view.

And a recent example of that is the Colston Four in June 2020.

Individuals pushing the statue of Edward Colston into the water in Bristol.

And all of those defendants pleaded not guilty and all of them were acquitted.

And there was some disquiet about those acquittals.

Because it was feared that it would now set a precedent that if you have a cause that gave you some justification in engaging in criminally damaging behaviour.