Courtroom drama as cinemas prepare to host juries

Inside a cinema where juries will begin hearing court cases in the coming days.

The first trials using a cinema to host a jury will begin next week.

It’s a bid to address the court case backlog worsened by the coronavirus pandemic.

From Tuesday, some High Court cases sitting in Edinburgh and Livingston will have juries sitting in five screens of the Odeon cinema at Fort Kinnaird retail park in the capital.

Each screen can accommodate 15 physically-distanced jurors, who will feature on a video wall in the courtrooms.

The remote jury centres will initially be in place for six months – after £5.5m funding from the Scottish Government – but there is an option to extend them for a longer period.

STV News visited the cinema in Edinburgh to see how it works.