The long-awaited return of High Court trials to Aberdeen, with jurors taking in the proceedings from the nearby Vue cinema, hit a technical hitch.
A fault held up the hearing of evidence at the first trial of its kind in the city since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The new video technology installed to allow juries to remotely view court proceedings in a socially distanced manner is thought to have malfunctioned – denying the assembled jurors the chance to hear evidence in the case.
It is understood that the case will start hearing evidence today, after some formalities were carried out in spite of the setback.
A spokesman for the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service last night said: “We can confirm that this morning in court there was a technical issue hearing oral evidence.
“This has since been resolved and the trial is progressing.”
High Court and sheriff jury-level trials came to an abrupt halt last March as the coronavirus pandemic took hold in Scotland and the sort of social mixing entailed would have been dangerous.
High courts hear the most serious cases in Scotland, with around 16 cases heard each day during normal periods.
Figures released last month suggested the average waiting period for high court trials had doubled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Data from the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service stated the average waiting period for a high court trial doubled from a six-month wait in pre-pandemic levels to 12 months.
