YORK Crown Court has passed another milestone as it deals with the backlog caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

For the first time since before the national lockdown, trials were underway in both of its courtrooms simultaneously.

This will enable trials to be heard more quickly.

Trials have been running on Court One with social distancing for some weeks, but Court Two only started its first socially distanced trial this week.

The milestone happened on the same week that the courthouse next to Clifford's Tower was cleared to use a new scheme to make life easier for vulnerable witnesses and complainants.

Instead of waiting months to give evidence at a trial, their cross-examination will be pre-recorded and played to the jury without them needing to attend the trial.

Vulnerable witnesses already give their evidence in chief via a pre-recorded video but until now had to attend court to give evidence via a video link or behind screens.

Under the new scheme, which is being rolled out nationally, all their evidence will be recorded before the trial.