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Having accompanied my Principal to the Magistrates Court on many occasions during my Articles (those were the days) and having had the misfortune to have to serve on a jury I know that in both the cases on which I served as a juror the magistrates would have found the defendant guilty but we threw out the charge, taking only a few minutes each case to reach our decisions.

In a Crown Court jury trial the prosecution have to prove the case with which the Defendant has actually been charged, whilst the magistrates are liable to say we believe the police evidence, he is guilty of committing X, so justice will be done if we convict him of Y so long as Y is not a significantly more serious offence than X..