Greenwood was charged by the police, however the police had to build a case with substantial enough evidence to be sent to the Crown Prosecution Service. The CPS then reviews the case and determines what, if any, charges are to be made. The police then arrest the defendant again, read him the charges and his rights. They then schedule a Magistrates Court hearing date, and in Greenwood’s case, the article says it is this coming Monday. It’s likely he will be held in custody until Monday’s hearing and taken to court by the police. Being charged with a crime does not mean he is guilty nor convicted yet. The defendant will appear as scheduled in front of a Magistrates court and he himself will plead guilty or not guilty to each of the charges. There is no jury at a Magistrates court. Magistrates hearings usually only last a day. If he pleads not guilty, it’ll definitely be sent to Crown Court. The Magistrates court will then decide if they have the suitable power to charge convict and sentence him for the charges or if it needs to go to Crown Court. Crown Court is where the defendant would face a jury and that trial will go on for a few weeks at least. If Mason Greenwood pleads guilty, then it might soften the sentence somewhat, but he’s still walking out of court with a heavy sentence. He’s also destroyed his image forever and will likely never play football in England again at a professional level at the bare minimum. The reason all of this took so long is because the police want to build as strong of a case as possible before sending it to the CPS. And given the dates mentioned in the article, they had over four years of evidence to work through.