Third of remand prisoners in England being held beyond legal time limit for trials

Pandemic has wreaked havoc on legal process says campaign group Fair Trials

More than 3,600 people - almost a third of England's remand prison population - have been held beyond the legal time limit awaiting trials as the pandemic wreaks havoc on the legal process.

The scale of the human backlog was revealed as some prisoners have been pleading guilty purely to avoid lengthy pre-trial detention and prompted calls for more remand prisoners to be immediately released.