KIDS IN THE CLINK
STONEHAVEN'S Sheriff Court and police cells have been filled with children in recent months.
But rather than being sent their by the long arm of the law, over 500 youngsters saw the inside of the buildings as part of tours organised by 10 local primary schools.
Court Officer Susan Leiper co-ordinated the initiative and is delighted with the response of the pupils.
She said: "We wanted to allow children to see what happens in the court because it is a place none of them have probably been to before and they all seemed to really enjoy themselves."
The young visitors were first taken into the courtroom where they occupied the public benches and were given a 40-minute talk on the general proceedings of the court.
The school pupils then put their names into a bowl and a jury was drawn for a mini mock trial, which Mrs Leiper believes was the highlight of their visit.
She said: "We received a thank you letter from every child who came to the court and the mock trial was particularly well received."
Stonehaven Police Station also allowed the local children to tour their building, with an explanation of what happens at the charge counter, the first port of call.
The cells were also visited, while explanations were given of how the intoximeter for breath tests works, as well as the finger printing equipment and CCTV.
PC Alan Simpson helped take the youngsters around his place of work and hopes to be able to show what happens at the station to many more in the future.
He said: "We just tried to educate the kids on some of the more interesting things that we do and everyone who came appeared to have a good time."
The next step could be to invite senior pupils at local secondary schools to the court and police station, and PC Simpson would welcome more visits from young people in the Mearns.
He said: "We would definitely be happy to do more tours of the building in the future and want to do anything we can to help out with positive ideas such as this."
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Weather for Stonehaven
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 9 C to 15 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 13 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: East
