Portsmouth Courts of Justice

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Portsmouth Courts of Justice is a court building in Portsmouth, England. It serves as a Crown Court for criminal cases and as a County Court for civil cases, and it is located on Winston Churchill Avenue.

History and design
- Before the 1960s, criminal cases were heard at the Portsmouth Guildhall.
- A small law courts building opened in July 1960 on the east side of a courtyard off Winston Churchill Avenue (now Portsmouth Magistrates’ Court).
- As the number of cases grew, a larger courthouse with facilities for both Crown Court and County Court hearings was built on the west side of the courtyard. The site had previously held terraced houses destroyed in World War II.
- The new building was designed by the Property Services Agency in a Modernist style, built in red brick for £7 million, and opened in 1982.
- The frontage faces the courtyard and features an informal entrance with three doorways. The building has two storeys of casement windows, with brickwork above and below. A Royal coat of arms sits on a brick pedestal to the right of the steps.
- Inside, the complex contains nine courtrooms.

Notable cases
- David Lace was tried and convicted in June 1984 for a post office robbery; in 2009 police named him as the murderer of Teresa De Simone (22 years after his death).
- Mark Brandford was convicted in February 2021 for the murder of his girlfriend, Kayleigh Dunning.