Around Town Meets...
Around Town Meets Cynthia Thomas Marshall, Magistrate
by Michelle Hodgson
“I’ve always liked fair play,” Cynthia Thomas Marshall tells me over a cup of tea at her home in West Bretton. “Even as a child, I always stuck up for the person who got bullied.”
A lifelong interest in the law led to Cynthia being appointed a magistrate in 1990. At the time she was a full-time mother of three – she has also been a dancer, taught ballet and worked as a cook at a Ripponden restaurant with Egon Ronay status.
The post is a voluntary one, a magistrate can be any age between 18 and 70 and there is no need for legal expertise as ongoing training is provided and legal advice is always at hand. After 21 years on the bench, sitting for a minimum of 26 half days a year (although in her case the figure is nearer 40) and with around 70-100 cases a day, Cynthia has seen thousands of defendants come before her over the years.
“Unfortunately you do see some of the same people coming back again and again,” she says. “At the start I used to feel quite sorry for people but I’ve accepted the law is the law and if they’ve offended then they’re guilty. That’s not to say that any of us don’t feel sad about some cases, because we do. We’re not hard- hearted, we try to look at it in the round. We do have guidelines and look at the mitigating and aggravating features before deciding the level of sentence. We also look at what any sentence is intended to achieve: it can be as simple as straight punishment but often it can be wholly, or include an element of rehabilitation, whereby the sentence we impose requires a defendant to address the reason they are offending, be it substance abuse, lack of a job, or even lack of accommodation.”
Working out of Halifax Magistrates Court, Cynthia’s role is as chairman and spokesperson on the bench, with two “wingers” sitting alongside her. “The wingers are very capable,
it’s just that one person is appointed to do the talking. If the two wingers are opposed to each other then it’s down to the chairman to make the final decision.”
Court sits at 10am but Cynthia usually arrives an hour before to look through the list of cases and refer to her book of guidelines, noting the details of the relevant pages.
“It’s best to be prepared,” Cynthia says. “As chairman you need to be in control of everything
‘Everything comes through the magistrates court first, even murder cases,” Cynthia explains, “but they would then be sent to Crown Court’
that’s happening. The dignity of the court is paramount and it’s important to treat everybody with respect. Even if they’re proved guilty they must still be treated with respect. On the other hand, if supporters are making a lot of noise and they’ve been warned a couple of times, they would be told to leave or even detained in the court cells.”
With complex cases, the three magistrates will retire to discuss the case in private. They can also call on a legal advisor to clarify their options or explain a legal argument, although the decision-making lies with the magistrates. Although it hasn’t happened to Cynthia, on occasion a magistrate will know one of the defendants and so they won’t sit on the case.
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