Teenagers get their day in court

It was a battle of the Wags and wigs at this law camp for kids, writes EMMA CULLINAN

‘PARIS HILTON” was convicted yesterday of drink driving in RTÉ’s car park at a trial in Clonee, Dublin 15, where a busy day in court also saw a custody battle end in tears for “Katie Price” and “Peter Andre” as their children were taken into care, while a row between “Coleen McLoughlin” and “Cheryl Cole” in Leeson Street, over who was the top Wag, saw the pair of them fined. In true fuddy-duddy style, the judge had to stop proceedings to ask exactly what a Wag was.

The pretend trials, which took place in the Castaheany Community Centre in Clonee, came at the end of the Law Camp 4 Kids summer camp for 22 12- to 17-year-olds, operated by Bernadette Barry, who runs Heritage Solicitors in Clonee with her husband Brian Doyle, who acted as judge yesterday.

This was like watching a school play, with parents as the audience and children in costume acting out their parts, as defence and prosecution lawyers, jury members, witnesses, registrar and defendant. Parents got emotionally involved and one mum was moved to shout “no” during a tense moment, rowing in for the defence.

Between trials, the toilets became dressing rooms, where clothes, shoes and wigs were pulled from glittery holdalls or retrieved from colourful heaps on the floor, while excited chatter dissected what had gone before and what was to come.

Indeed, at the beginning of the first and biggest trial of the day – in which “Vincent O’Leary” had been caught as the getaway driver in a robbery – the humidity in the room was solely created by teen eagerness and anticipation. One prosecution lawyer was already practising saying, “You’re going down”, in the sort of openness not usually witnessed in lawyers. More insight into true feelings was given when a registrar asked a witness to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, “so God help me” rather than the usual “so help me God”.

Many children on the course “like the drama of it”, says Barry, who admits she found studying law boring and only began to enjoy it when she started working. “I only do litigation now,” she says of her days in court (her husband takes on the other elements of court work in their practice), “and I love acting too. If you have a passion, kids pick up on that. This is very much an action-based law camp. You are not sitting down learning about law.”

That’s what Mary Aust, mother of Jennifer (13), who played the part of a juror in one case and a barrister in another, liked about the course. “It showed that learning is not about just having people in front of a class lecturing, but is about trying to solve problems,” says Aust, who lectures at DIT. “They learned that there isn’t always one answer.”

“I was looking for a summer camp that was appropriate for her age,” says Frances Byrne, whose daughter Isabel Sweeney (13) played both a defendant’s wife and Jordan (in a colossal, jet-black wig). “I had mixed feeling about that,” laughs Byrne. “Isabel loved the course. The people who run it kept the teens stimulated, which is not easy because teens have the biggest antennae for bulls**t.”

“It taught me that everything has to be prepared and you have to be careful what you say,” says Jennifer, who can now watch her beloved legal dramas with more insight.

Children’s confidence improved over the course, says Barry. “Speaking in front of the room got easier,” says Sarah Morris (13). “I was shaky and nervous at the beginning,” admits Sonia Moloney (15), who wants to be a lawyer. “It taught us not to be afraid to make a point.” One student, says Barry, had a stammer and wouldn’t speak at the start but, by the end, was regularly shouting “objection, objection”. In court yesterday, one girl was even nicknamed “objection” for her frequent interjections.

Most teens got into their parts, with ‘Paris Hilton’, dressed in a platinum wig and clutching the ultimate accessory, a toy dog, admitting that before the offence she had partied all night, “but, I mean, I still looked good”. Her character witness did a sterling job, relating just how intimately she knew the celeb: “We have been friends, like, forever.”

As the room waited for the verdict of the first trial, the tension ratcheted up. One girl stood with her hands over her mouth. “Guilty,” came the verdict. She punched the air, people cheered and the parents clapped.