YOUNGSTERS proved they were up to the benchmark when they took part in a competition pitting the country's best young legal minds against each other.

Teams from secondary schools were at Bolton Magistrates' Court to act out dramatic legal scenes.

Pupils from Canon Slade School ran out winners and will now go on to a regional heat of the annual contest which is entered by more than 4,500 school pupils every year.

Court staff and magistrates helped to judge the competition, which is based on the format of a criminal case with students taking on the roles of lawyers, witnesses and magistrates to act out a specially-written scenario.

Former Crown Prosecution Service solicitor and judge Peter Watson said: "The standard this year has been sky high. The contestants have been courteous, assured, professional and competent and I have no doubt in my mind that some of them will go on to have very successful careers in the legal profession."

Teams came from seven schools across Bolton and the North-west - Canon Slade School, Westhoughton High School, Mount St Joseph's School, Hope High School in Salford, Chorley Southlands High School in Chorley, Unity College in Burnley and Rhyddineys Business Enterprise in Accrington.

Canon Slade teacher Gail Shuttleworth said: "I'm very proud of all the hard work that they have put in to this in order to achieve what they have.

"This is the sixth year we've entered and the first we've won."