Sam Stein QC and Emma Goodall are appearing before Mr Justice Treacy at the Royal Courts of Justice in the first Crown Court trial in England and Wales to take place without a jury for 350 years.

The four defendants are accused of involvement in an armed robbery at a warehouse at Heathrow Airport in 2004 in which 16 employees are said to have been bound at gunpoint and shots fired towards another before £1.75 million was stolen. The Crown allege that those involved erroneously believed they would steal £10 million.

This is the fourth time the matter has come to trial, the last attempt ending following allegations of jury tampering, and at a Court of Appeal hearing last year Lord Judge ruled that for that reason this trial could proceed before a judge alone.