Chortle chortle, scribble scribble: inside the Old Bailey with Britain’s last court reporters
Sophie Elmhurst profiles Guy Toyne and Scott Wilford, who operate Court News, the last remaining specialist court reporting agency at London's Old Bailey. The article explores how digital transformation and declining newspaper readership have decimated court reporting, leaving just these two veteran journalists to chronicle criminal proceedings that largely go unnoticed by mainstream media.
Summary
The article follows Guy Toyne, a 61-year-old court reporter who has worked at the Old Bailey for 35 years with his partner Scott Wilford. Their agency, Court News, represents the last vestige of what was once a thriving ecosystem of court reporters who covered criminal proceedings. The piece reveals how their business model works - selling court reports to national newspapers for £130-700 per story, though orders have dwindled dramatically.
Elmhurst details the grim realities of modern court reporting: the Old Bailey's press room is in decay, filled with abandoned equipment and yellow-stained carpets. Where multiple agencies once competed, now mostly just Toyne and Wilford remain, along with three junior reporters covering other London courts. The author describes their daily routine of deciding which cases to cover based on commercial viability - 'nice murders' involving middle-class white women sell better than routine gang violence.
The article explores broader issues affecting court reporting, including the digitization of court systems that has made proceedings less transparent, expensive transcript access (£7,500 for rape victims vs. $3 maximum in the US), and social media algorithms that bury stories containing words like 'rape.' Despite financial struggles forcing salary cuts and borrowing, both men remain committed to their work, viewing it as essential public service. Toyne particularly emphasizes the civic importance of documenting what happens in courts, believing the public should know about crime in their communities, even if readership has declined dramatically.
Key Insights
- Court News makes about £130 for non-exclusive court reports and up to £700 for exclusive stories, but business has dried up as over 320 local and regional papers closed between 2009-2019
- The digitization of court systems has created new barriers to transparency, with some court documents now shared privately online between barristers and judges without being heard in open court
- Google's algorithms bury stories containing words like 'rape' or 'sexual assault,' forcing court reporters to use euphemistic language that obscures the reality of crimes
- Transcripts of UK court proceedings can only be obtained through expensive court-approved services, with one rape victim quoted £7,500 for her case transcript versus a $3 maximum in the US
- Gang murders and routine stabbings rarely make news because they're considered too common to be newsworthy, while 'nice murders' involving middle-class white women killing men always get coverage
- The Old Bailey press room was once packed with journalists from four different specialist agencies who would race to file copy first, but now it's mostly empty except for Toyne and Wilford
- Court reporters must rely on traditional shorthand skills and face resistance from some barristers who refuse to provide their names or case details, despite public funding requirements for transparency
- Toyne and Wilford view their work as maintaining the public record and preventing crimes from being forgotten, posting stories to their archive even when no newspapers buy them
Topics
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