<
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2026/aug/07/black-barrister-london-court-racism>
"A black barrister has said a security guard told him he could not park in a
court’s car park in London because “it’s not for defendants”.
Stephen Akinsanya, who in June was awarded an OBE for raising awareness of
youth knife crime and its prevention, said the incident, at an east London
court about four weeks ago, illustrated the lack of progress on racism within
the criminal justice system.
He said: “It was a sort of reflection of what happened when I first qualified
back in 1993, going into the same court, being asked by a security guard which
case I was on trial in. And as a junior lawyer thinking: well, why does it have
to be that I’m the one on trial? Why can it not be that I’m the lawyer?
“And then 33 years later, pulling up in my car to park in the same court
building, a security guard saying: ‘You can’t park here.’ And when I said why,
he said: ‘Defendants can’t park in the car park.’”
The barrister, who first mentioned the incident in a Criminal Bar Association
podcast published this week, titled “Being Black in Criminal Justice – Is the
Profession Racist?”, said he could not believe that “people are still
prejudging an individual”. He said that, apart from the gown, he was wearing
his barrister’s attire, which the security guard should have been familiar
with. When he challenged the guard, “he was completely embarrassed” and raised
the barrier to allow him to park, said Akinsanya.
Keir Monteith KC told the podcast: “We’ve probably all experienced that
situation early on and not so early on in our careers where we’ve been asked to
go and sit in the dock.” He said others were still experiencing it but he
personally was not, which he suggested was because he was a KC and known in a
particular court.
In 2020, the courts service apologised to two black barristers after one was
mistaken for a defendant three times in a day and the other twice in a day.
Akinsanya said: “I’m privy to seeing how the bar has changed with a lot more
people from diverse backgrounds entering the profession but there is still a
perception that, if you’re black, you’re more likely not to be the lawyer,
you’re more likely to be a defendant who’s attending court because you’re on
trial.
“I just think: why are we still in this position in the 21st century? Which
makes one think about the wider conversation we were having [on the podcast]
about the lack of black judges.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
