Law students from Gateway College in Leicester were challenged to use their skills to analyse one of the most famous court cases of the century in a competition run by Leicester De Montfort Law School.
They were asked for their verdict in the trial of sports star Oscar Pistorius who shot dead his girlfriend Reeva Steencamp in 2013. He was found guilty of culpable homicide and sentenced to five years.
They had to submit an essay which was judged by Sheree Peaple, head of the law school, at De Montfort University Leicester (DMU); Tim Hillier, associate head, and Professor Gavin Dingwall, Professor of Criminal Justice.
Students and their parents were invited to DMU for the announcement of the winning entries.
The winner was Palaka Chauhan, who won an iPad Air and the inaugural Gateway College and Leicester De Montfort law School shield.
She said: “I was not expecting this at all! It was an exciting competition and I learned a lot about South African law.”
Jackie Hankins, director of studies at Gateway, said: “Law at Gateway College is very popular, we have 120 students either studying it as BTEC or A-level and about 70 per cent of our students go on to study law at university.
“For this competition we wanted them to be able to argue their point and they have all worked very hard.”
Mrs Peaple said: “We were really impressed with the students’ work and we thought that they had worked hard to grapple with law that related to a different jurisdiction – trying to get their head around not just what the law says in this country, but what the law in South Africa says. We had a difficult task in judging the winners.”
De Montfort Law School has established strong links with Gateway College. All the students who took part were given a certificate of commendation. They were: Mariya Salim Meman, Mercedes Rose Petrie, Farial Suleman, Kieran Oakley, Waseem Hassim, Aminda Dhanoa, Shriya Patel and Jigna Anand.
Posted on Tuesday 31 March 2015