Guilty or not guilty? The choice is yours when Murder Trial Live comes to Portsmouth

The Murder Trial Live in Portsmouth - the Brewer brothersThe Murder Trial Live in Portsmouth - the Brewer brothers
The Murder Trial Live in Portsmouth - the Brewer brothers | Other 3rd Party
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be in a jury for a murder trial – the fate of the defendant laying in your hands?

Now you can find out in Murder Trial Live which takes place in a big top at The Village Hotel in Portsmouth on Sunday, March 8 from 6.30pm.

Part live show, part social experiment, a fictional murder trial will play out, as it would in a real crown court – with you as the jury.

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Working with real barristers the audience will be asked to consider whether Paul Sutton is guilty of the murder of the Brewer brothers, 13-year-old Steven and 14-year-old Daniel.

The brothers disappeared near York on Boxing Day 1993, and for five years there was nothing until their bodies were discovered on a building site.

In this story, it was not until 2018 that DCI Brady arrested Sutton and charged him with their murder.Inside the big top is a fully immersive court room, with each table of 12 forming a jury.

The experience also boasts a selection of street food vendors as well as Prosecco, craft ale and gin bar.

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The trial is designed to test the robustness of the UK’s justice system, with the same trial being replicated more than 200 times to audiences nation-wide.

Murder Trial Live will ask the audience to act as the jury in a fictional trial at The Village Hotel, Portsmouth on March 8, 2020.Murder Trial Live will ask the audience to act as the jury in a fictional trial at The Village Hotel, Portsmouth on March 8, 2020.
Murder Trial Live will ask the audience to act as the jury in a fictional trial at The Village Hotel, Portsmouth on March 8, 2020. | Other 3rd Party

At the end of the tour the full national results will be released to see if there is variation region by region and city by city.

Executive producer Samuel Piri said: ‘This is an exciting opportunity to see what juror service is actually like and to ask the public to make one to most difficult decisions there is to make. Is this man guilty of the charge of murder?’

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