A PRISON-TO-COURT video link - allowing cases to be processed faster, more cheaply and with greater security - was launched in Durham yesterday.

The link, at Durham Prison, will be used for remand, committal and bail application hearings, removing the need for the prisoner's appearance at North-East magistrates' courts.

The system is already operating at Carlisle Magistrates' Court, where some Durham prisoners have their cases heard.

It will go online at magistrates' courts in Newcastle and North Tyneside at the start of next week, followed shortly by Bedlington, South Shields, Sunderland, Gateshead and Workington, with all the technology due to be functioning by next month.

Currently, up to £2,000 a day is spent on police escorts for high-security prisoners attending courts.

Judge Richard Lowden, Durham Crown Court's residing judge, who launched the link, said it would drastically reduce this cost.

"There are bound to be significant cost savings," he said. "There's a huge strain on the manpower of prison services involved in moving prisoners out and back again.

"Such movements are disruptive to the prisoner, and they are most at risk of escaping while in transit."

Mike Donne, head of operations, said the next step would be extending the system to early hearings at crown courts, which was already being piloted in Manchester.