Mother-of-two Liz Hawie has completed an amazing stint of work experience - as a flying lawyer in the Canadian wilderness.

Liz, of Ilkley, travelled in a mini-plane along with the judge, police, defence and prosecuting lawyers to bring justice to the remote villages of Labrador.

It was part of a course at Bradford College where the former Bradford Royal Infirmary nurse is now taking a three-year law degree.

She said: "It was an amazing experience. When the Court arrives in town it is a big event and you get all sides and the judge staying together and filling up the hotels.

"They set up a court in a spare room and start to get to the business of the day.

"I suppose it used to be like that, with circuit judges, in this country.

"Much of the crime out there is alcohol-related because whereas we have been drinking for centuries they have not and are not as used to it."

She was working with the Inu people, and the courts, based roughly on the British system, replace some instances where the elders dealt out the justice.

She added: "Sometimes they get together, decide he's been a bad boy and send them to an island for three or six months and leave them to fend for themselves as punishment."

Liz decided on a career change after training and working as an obstetrics and gynaecology nurse here and abroad, but the lure of law proved too much and the Buttershaw-born mum in her 50s enrolled at Bradford College with a view to hopefully becoming a barrister.

She said: "I chose law because I realised that just about everything in life is affected by the law - getting married, getting divorced, even buying a bus ticket you are entering into a contract."

She admits her work experience, based with a Master of the Supreme Court solicitor, was a far cry from a solicitor's office in Bradford city centre.

All students on the course are encouraged to find work experience placements - and Liz secured hers thanks to a Friend in Canada.

"I knew this guy from Newfoundland who was a solicitor and Master of the Supreme Court and he suggested I should join them on some of the flights.

"Some of the towns had one store and a petrol pump and were like the last frontier, but it was wonderful to see the law at work in such places."

The major difference was the prevalence of guns.

"Once a person has been charged, the police go to their homes and confiscate the guns," she said.

"One man we defended had six at his home."