Books / News
Former crown court reporter pens memoir
Geoff Bennett was a rare beast: a specialist crown court reporter on a local newspaper.
For two decades, he covered Bristol Crown Court for the Evening Post and he has now written a memoir about his experiences not just covering the court on Small Street but about the early days of being a cub reporter in Wiltshire.
The Wolf of Small Street, published on June 6, is described as “the autobiography of a man who proved everyone wrong – not with drama or fanfare, but with a notebook, a shorthand pad and 30 years of showing up”.
Geoff’s father left home when he was 17. “His view of me getting into reporting was that ‘he will never be a journalist as long as he’s got a hole in his arse’,” Geoff told Bristol24/7.
“I was spurred on by that, but after journalism college I drifted for ten years until it was obvious reporting was the only thing I both wanted to do and could do.”
In Geoff’s early career, he was a sports editor on the weekly Wiltshire Gazette & Herald, and a news reporter for that newspaper and the Swindon Advertiser.
But he found his true calling as a court reporter in Bristol, where over the years he became as much part of the furniture at Bristol Crown Court as the ushers, barristers and judges.
Geoff flitted between the sprawling building’s ten courtrooms, picking out the biggest stories of the day as well as the smaller and quirkier ones which he thought would be of interest to readers.
“I was lucky to have that specialist job and I’m aware that newspapers may not have the resources today to allow that role,” Geoff said.
“The changes I saw over the course of my career were massive, especially in terms of the digital revolution.
“I lived through the rise of the internet and birth of social media, and went from trying to master a good print story to writing online, video making and live blogging…
“If trials are being missed and verdicts come from police press releases that is a foreseeable consequence but is a great shame.”
The Wolf of Small Street by Geoffrey Bennett is published on June 4
Living in Wiltshire and working in Bristol was both an advantage and disadvantage for Geoff, who commuted to the former Evening Post offices on Temple Way from his home in Swindon where the 63-year-old still lives with his wife, Jeni.
It enabled him to get out of Bristol at the end of a day in which he occasionally received threats from miscreants passing through the legal system.
“Some people didn’t grasp that the work of the courts are a matter of public record and have been for centuries,” said Geoff, whose Monday mornings for many years saw him tasked with giving youngsters on work experience at the Evening Post and later the Bristol Post what was often their first taste of journalism.
Geoff told Bristol24/7 that his most memorable case to cover was the murder of landscape architect Joanna Yeates, who was killed by her neighbour Vincent Tabak in 2010.
“I was joined by the national press for that one, and was one of the reporters who visited Joanna’s Clifton flat after the jury visit and saw how it was trapped in time.
“What was obviously once a home prepared for the warmth of Christmas was just cold rooms smeared with grey fingerprint powder, trapped on the day of a senseless and tragic death.”
The national media descended on Bristol following the disappearance of Joanna Yeates, with Geoff later visiting her flat on Canynge Road in Clifton during the trial of her murderer, Vincent Tabak – photo: Martin Booth
“By the time 2023 came around I had lived through Covid and had also attempted to report court cases via videolink, with mixed results,” Geoff said.
“I was tired of online courses, the unrelenting pressure for everyone to strive for a big online readership and my complete inability to master technology easily.
“I re-evaluated my life, decided I had put in a good shift and took voluntary redundancy. Though I miss the job and the great people I met, I made the right decision to go.”
Geoff said the idea of an autobiography had been in his head for years, especially about his early life which forms half of the book.
“I have fond memories about mates and school and I’ve a plethora of funny bits and pieces too good not to share…
“After I managed to break into reporting, I kept a record of everything I wrote.
“In the back of my mind I thought it would be useful for a memoir, though that remained a fancy pipedream for years.
“It wasn’t until some two years after leaving the Bristol Post that I found myself somewhat incapacitated by a swollen prostate and decided to get the biography off my chest.”
Pre-order The Wolf of Small Street from Amazon
Main photo: Jeni Bennett
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