Online Evening Leader readers can become a virtual judge and jury in an exclusive series of interactive courtroom scenarios launched in conjunction with the Crown Prosecution Service in Wrexham.

The Your Justice project consists of a series of videos showing real lawyers addressing the viewer as if they were a magistrate hearing a case.

The viewer gets legal advice and chooses a sentence for the accused before a real magistrate explains what they would have done in the same situation.

The videos, all based on cases that could be seen in any magistrates’ court, are filmed by members of the Wrexham CPS in their own time.

The CPS hopes the experience will help the public gain an insight into the decisions made by prosecutors and magistrates and to understand how taxpayers’ money is used in the criminal justice system.

Director of Public Prosecutions Sir Ken Macdonald QC was in Wrexham to launch the service.

He said: “All the people in the scenario behave exactly as they would in court and that should help to give the public confidence that the people involved in these cases, the prosecutors and the judges, are doing their best.

“People think the courts are a closed world and they don’t understand what is happening. It’s a bit of a mystery to them but hopefully this site will help them to understand the reality.”

CPS prosecutor Justin Espie, who is leading the project, said: “The Evening Leader has long been at the forefront of raising awareness of the Criminal Justice System especially in respect of domestic violence and it’s for that reason we chose a domestic assault as the first scenario.

“I think many of those taking part will feel particularly challenged and interested to see a mock case that is as true to life as we can broadcast over the internet.”

Evening Leader digital editor Christian Dunn said: “This kind of working partnership shows great common sense by the CPS; they can use our website’s traffic to get their message across and we can use their content to add more value to our site.”

Have a go for yourself.