Christine Dutton, 80, from Huddersfield, has been given a fixed court date of August 2027, more than five years after her husband John died in 2022. The delay stems from a string of adjournments tied to how courts schedule and deliver trials across West Yorkshire.
Repeated cancellations have left the family “exhausted” and cost them time and money, she says. “I haven’t truthfully had a full night’s sleep since we started,” Dutton says. “It’s wasting so much money and time and it’s just not good enough, and it’s not nice to have to keep on worrying at the stage of my life.”
The case concerns her husband’s carer, Jasbir Kau, 44, who has been charged with three counts of ill treatment or neglect by a care worker. John Dutton, a former fish and chip shop owner, suffered a severe stroke in 2017 that left him in a wheelchair, unable to speak and requiring 24-hour care. Concerns were raised over his treatment before his death. His daughter Elizabeth McGuire, 57, has called the court system a “shambles”. “I don’t want to remember my dad as a court case. I want to remember him as the person he was,” she says. “I thought you went to court and it was read that day and there just doesn’t seem to be any thought about how this is affecting our mental health.”
The operational cause of the delay is straightforward. The case has been treated as a floating trial, where several trials are scheduled on the same date and not all proceed. Kau first appeared at Huddersfield Magistrates’ Court in 2023, and the case was sent to Leeds Crown Court for a hearing in March 2025. The first trial was postponed because no courtroom was available. A new date of June 2026 was set, then adjourned a second time for the same reason. A third date was listed for 2028, but after a police officer who worked on the case complained, a final fixed date was moved to August 2027.
Floating trials have existed for decades as a tool to maximise court efficiency, but their use has risen sharply in recent years because of backlogs, and their effectiveness varies by court type. Leeds, Sheffield and York crown courts have seen small reductions in recent months. According to the Criminal Bar Association, Leeds Crown Court recorded a 0.8% reduction over the six months to June, while Sheffield saw a 2.6% drop to 1,884 cases and York had 457 delayed cases, a reduction of 2.3%. Magistrates’ courts across West Yorkshire tell a different story: the backlog has risen 29% in the last 12 months to a record high.
Kama Melly KC, vice-chair of the CBA, of Park Square Chambers in Leeds, says that while floating trials can be disruptive, a new national listing protocol introduced last month should help reduce backlogs and minimise the need for them. “The system is something that we’re used to and is far from perfect,” she says. “This new mechanism is designed to tackle the historic backlog and should mean that priority is given to some of our most vulnerable witnesses and indeed defendants, rather than just dealing with cases on a first-come-first-served basis.”
Delivering that improvement falls to the Ministry of Justice. Justice Secretary Alex Norris has pushed to recruit more magistrates to ease court pressures after ministers warned it could take “nearly 300 years” to reduce the backlog to pre-pandemic levels. In September the government pledged £1.5m to help fund the training of 100 more barristers per year to increase capacity. At the end of 2025 the crown court backlog stood at almost 80,000 cases, with Ministry of Justice figures showing significant growth in cases taking two or more years to conclude.
The ministry cites the closure of eight crown and 160 magistrates’ court buildings since 2022, a cap on the number of days judges are paid to sit, Covid lockdowns, strike action by barristers, and increased investment in policing sending more cases to court. The growth of digital evidence, such as that obtained from a mobile phone, has also complicated the process.
In a statement, the Ministry of Justice said: “We inherited a courts system at the brink of collapse with victims waiting too long for justice, and we recognise the devastating impact these delays can have. That’s why we’re acting on all fronts, investing at record levels, driving system efficiency, and delivering structural reforms to tackle the backlog and deliver swifter justice for all.”
Whether the new listing protocol and fresh recruitment can translate into fixed dates at Leeds Crown Court before August 2027 remains the open question for the Dutton family.