Law Week Festival

The year is 1560. Someone has been found dead inside Winchester Cathedral.

Given the injuries evident, it appears that foul play is the cause.

Run by the University of Winchester, in which the departments of Policing, Criminology, Forensics and Law have teamed up to create a murder mystery.

Join one of three 90 minute sessions and test your detective skills at this special event, exploring the criminal investigation techniques available at the time of the murder to uncover the answers.

Examine the crime scene inside the cathedral and then return to the onsite laboratory where you’ll consider the evidence and solve the case.

This is always a very popular event, ideal for families (children 13+), please book early to guarantee your place. Limited to 30 spaces per session.

Click on a session listed below to book:
Session one : 10.00am – 11.30am
Session two: 12.00pm – 1.30pm
Session three: 2.00pm – 3.30pm

If you have difficulty booking online please call our Box Office to book via phone: 01962 857 275 (phone lines open 10.00am – 4.00pm, Monday – Friday).

Tickets:
Adults £12
Concessions* £6
* Concessions include under 19s, students, unemployed and those in receipt of state benefits

Happily, very few people will ever be involved with the criminal justice system.

The public are more likely to be victims of crime; however, it is possible to find yourself in a Police station with no idea of what happens next and at a loss. There is little or no education about how the criminal justice system functions and it can be a confusing and frightening place.

In this country policing is at the gift of the public and justice is open – anyone can observe a court case from the public gallery – but for understandable reasons many aspects of the criminal justice system happen away from the public’s gaze.

Join us as Amelia Riviere, magistrate, and former High Sheriff explores with a panel of criminal justice experts – the Police, solicitors, the Judiciary – the convoluted and sometimes extraordinary journey from arrest to sentence, revealing what really happens behind closed doors.

Timings: 
7.30pm – 9.00pm

Tickets: 
Adults £12
Concessions* £6
* Concessions include under 19s, students, unemployed and those in receipt of state benefits

Making Choices is a challenging evening of performance, presentation, and interaction. Hampshire-based arts organisations BearFace Theatre, Artswork, and The Point Ensemble Youth Theatre come together to provide a unique insight into the complexities of modern life as experienced by young people.

Ensemble Youth Theatre, led by BearFace Theatre, share their new performance piece exploring issues that influence young people (sometimes unknowingly) to venture into criminality. They ask the question: “how can we as a community respond to youth crime and address its causes?”

Artswork demonstrate the power and effectiveness of creativity when addressing social issues and share how their Choices programme empowers young people to find their voice and develop authentic ways of dealing with our challenging and ever-changing world. This includes animation, interactive participation, and improvisation as BearFace introduce Buddy and Joe to the audience, two extraordinary characters developed by prisoners in HMP/YOI Winchester as part of the Choices programme.

Timings: 
7.30pm – 9.00pm

Tickets: 
Adults £12
Concessions* £6
* Concessions include under 19s, students, unemployed and those in receipt of state benefits

Andy West, author of A Life Inside (‘Authentic, fascinating and deeply moving.’ Terry Waite), and Lucia Osborne-Crowley, author of The Lasting Harm (‘Will make you think about trauma in a new light’ EVENING STANDARD) bring profound insights into the human experience of our criminal justice system as they discuss to what extent it is working for both perpetrators of crime and their victims.

Andy West’s father and brother were in prison, and he now works with prisoners exploring the philosophical and emotional realities of the life within the prison system. Osborne-Crowley was the victim of a serious crime as a teenager, and throughout her work she examines the enduring impact of trauma on the body and mind of the victims of crime.

Their discussion promises to be a thought-provoking exploration of suffering, resilience, and the complex paths toward healing, forgiveness and whether our criminal justice and prison systems are failing both those who have committed crimes and those who are the victims of them, and the wider reaching effects of this on their children and families.

The talk will offer attendees a unique opportunity to engage with two powerful voices in contemporary literature.

Before and after the talk there will be an opportunity to view the artwork Cell Quilt and to purchase items produced by Fine Cell Work, a charity that provides educational, and employment opportunities that prepare prisoners to successfully reintegrate into the community after release.

Timings: 
7.30pm – 9.00pm

Tickets:
Adults £12
Concessions* £6
* Concessions include under 19s, students, unemployed and those in receipt of state benefits

An annual service of celebration of all those who work in Law and Order. The service is preceded by the procession down High Street from Law Court. Everyone is welcome to the service.

Photo credit: Joe Low

Cell Quilt depicts the aerial view of a life-size version of a two-man prison cell in HMP Bullingdon. It is an astonishing object, exact to the last detail, measuring eleven feet by eight feet, recreating the tiny space in which two men are confined, in some cases, up to 23 hours a day, eating, reading, washing, and using the toilet in each other’s company.

Cell Quilt is one of Fine Cell Work’s projects – a charity that provides educational and employment opportunities to prepare prisoners to successfully reintegrate into the community after release. They are the only British charity and social enterprise providing earned income for prisoners on such a wide scale, supporting more than 8,000 prisoners over the past 27 years.

Timing:
Cathedral opening hours, click here for more information.

Admission:
Entry is included with your annual pass. You can purchase an annual pass upon arrival to the cathedral or online here, where you’ll save £1 per person.