A live 'murder trial experience’ is coming to Northern Ireland - and you get to be on the jury

A live murder trial experience will be taking place at the Hilton Belfast Templepatrick Golf & Country Club in October, where attendees will have the power to decide if the accused is guilty of murder.

Guilty or not guilty

Attendees will be faced with the case of Frank Lane, who is accused of murdering his wife Alison on 25 March 2017. But her body has never been found.

Just like a real trial, a judge will preside over the case and the prosecution and defence will call witnesses to the stand to give evidence.

The evidence will then be cross examined by the defence and as part of the jury, it will be up to you make up your mind whether Frank Lane is guilty of murdering his wife or not.

Alex Khan, from London-North Western Trains, attended a screening event and said, "The experience was incredible. There were people who had made up their minds before they had event sat down.

"The whole thing is a mind game. A man's liberty is at stake here and the weight of responsibility is huge. I began to question my own decisions."

A national social experiment

The trial has been produced by leading criminal barristers and the ITAE Group and will unfold live in front of the audience, who will also get a two-course meal during the course of the evening.

The event has been designed as a national social experiment, designed to test the robustness of the UK justice system.

The trial will be replicated at 40 different locations around the UK, arriving in Belfast on 4 October as part of the national tour.

Executive producer Samuel Piri said, "There's a real current appetite for crime and justice programmes at the moment and we wanted to test how fit for purpose our justice system is in this modern age.

"The fascinating thing about this experiment is that the same trial and evidence could produce different verdicts in different locations.”

How to join the jury

The ITAE Group are seeking 150 jurors to take part in the experiment this summer.

Tickets for the event are priced from £69 per person, plus booking fee, and includes a two course meal before the trial begins.

Potential jurors can sign up for the Belfast event in October online.