CHAMPIONS of the criminal justice system received official recognition for "going the extra mile", today.

Four individuals and six groups from all aspects of the criminal justice system in County Durham and Darlington were presented with awards for their work over the past year.

Judge Richard Lowden, who stands down as Honorary Judicial Recorder of Durham at the end of the month, made the presentations to a total of 45 recipients, who work or volunteer in different fields within the criminal justice network in County Durham and Darlington.

Some work with offenders, others with witnesses and victims, all helping to deliver justice within the county.

Judge Lowden told them: "The criminal justice service in Durham and Darlington is in good heart.

"It’s doing well in national terms and it’s down to team work.

"The fact that some people have been seen to be ‘going the extra mile’ should not detract from the very good team work going on throughout the county, some of which stands out for its excellence in a highly achieving pool."

But, at the end of the ceremony, the tables were turned on Judge Lowden, who was himself presented with an ‘award’, in the form of a cityscape painting of Durham, by county police Chief Constable Jon Stoddart.

It recognised his eight years as honorary judicial recorder, overseeing the work of the criminal justice system across Durham.

Individual award winners who received their ‘extra mile’ certificates in the ceremony, at the Tythe Barn Club, alongside Durham Prison, were: Caroline Airs, equality, diversity and community engagement manager for the Crown Prosecution Service; volunteer support worker Pauline Holbrook, of Newcastle College, for work with offenders at Deerbolt Young Offenders’ Institution, Barnard Castle; and, prison officers Mick Cassidy and Grahame Greener, of Low Newton Prison, near Durham, for separate work with problematic female offenders.

Group winners were: County Durham Probation Service’s Citizenship Implementation and Evaluation Team; County Durham Youth Offending Service; County Durham Independent Advisory Groups working with the criminal justice system in the county; South Durham Magistrates’ Court office; Durham Prison’s ‘PASRO’ team, working with substance misusing offenders; and, the jail’s Employer Engagement Partnership, working with Marriott Hotel, Durham, and the County Durham Waste Management Company.