NEW magistrates were welcomed yesterday with words of advice from a senior North-East circuit judge.

Fourteen newcomers to the North and South Durham magistrates' benches were sworn in as Justices of the Peace.

Judge Richard Lowden, the Honorary Judicial Recorder of Durham, oversaw the traditional ceremony, at Durham Crown Court. He told the eight men and six women they were taking up posts introduced by King Richard I to preserve the peace on his return from the Crusades, in 1185.

The term Justices of the Peace was adopted by 1351 and has existed since, but with varying powers.

Judge Lowden said they are no longer able to impose the punishment meted out to John Arrowsmith, in Durham, in 1597. Accused of murder, he made no reply when asked how he was pleading, and so he was convicted after being deemed to be "mute with malice", rather than by "act of God".

He was ordered to be crushed slowly under a growing pile of rocks, a punishment which took place in full public gaze in the city's Market Place, on August 26, 1597.

But Judge Lowden told the fledgling JPs: "Be aware, be proud of your heritage, seek confidence from it - your jurisdiction is well and truly tried and tested."

He warned them, though, this was a time of "unprecedented" legislative change.

"We, as judges and magistrates, must play our part by doing what we can do, and better, including more efficiently, getting away from what has been called the 'adjournment culture'," he said.

"It may be a lot of our present system depends upon it."

The new magistrates are: Brian Frederick Bowe, David Robert Carr, Pauline Carr, George Gardner, Steven Paul Gittins, Isobell Jackson, Ann Lowson, Judith Elizabeth McKenzie-Hewitt, Brian Leslie Myers, John Henry Oulton, Richard Scothon, Andrew Martyn Waddington, Fiona Patrice Walters and Julie Whitehead.