What happens if your child has to give evidence in court? Specialmeasures have been in place since the passage of the Criminal JusticeAct 1991 and its associated Memorandum of Good Practice on VideoRecorded Interviews for Child Witnesses for Criminal Proceedings. Thelegislation was updated to include vulnerable adults in the second partof the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999, but only now hasthe Government published three volumes of guidance to support the 1999Act.
Which special measures? Subject to the agreement of the court, screenscan be erected to shield the witness from the defendant, or the witnesscan give evidence via a live TV link. The court can exclude people orpress in cases involving sexual offences or possible witnessintimidation. Children may give evidence with help from an approvedintermediary.
Which witnesses need these safeguards? The guidance tries to categorise"vulnerability", which can refer to much more than a person's age. Itcan include children or adults with a learning disability, communicationdisorder, or mental disorder, or refer to a victim's feelings of fear,distress and intimidation.
What about support throughout the process? Witness support can be onoffer during the police interview, during the time before the trialtakes place, and in court. These measures should be available to defenceand prosecution witnesses.
Does it differentiate between a seven-year-old and a 17-year-old victimof a crime? When the guidance refers to children, it means anyone under18 who is a victim or witness or both, but it tries to distinguishbetween different age bands, from very young children (under five) tothose of secondary school age.
What about child protection? Evidence gathered as part of an interviewmay also be used to feed into a Section 47 child-protection inquiry anddecisions made about possible childcare proceedings. Some child victimsmay need therapeutic and other types of support, and other members ofthe investigating team - depending on the child's history of involvementwith various services - may include a social worker, GP, childpsychiatrist, or educational psychologist. Children need to be able tounderstand why these people are involved in the investigation, and betalked through the whole criminal procedure.
Although Crown Prosecution Service personnel do not take part in theseinterviews, the guidance recommends that discussions between police andthe CPS take place early to discuss the use of special measures incourt.
Does the guidance give information on how to interview children? Yes,including cases where the accused is on trial for abusing that child orwhere the child has experienced or witnessed domestic violence. Childrenneed to be prepared for the interview by a trained practitioner.Interviews should be conducted in their preferred language, and besensitive to their particular cultural or religious needs. Although thechild's consent is not required, it's obviously better to take evidencefrom a willing rather than a hostile witness. However, as the guidancestates, children may have to give evidence if a prosecution case is tohave any chance of succeeding.
FACT BOX
- Seven per cent of children experienced serious physical abuse and oneper cent sexual abuse by a parent or carer (NSPCC 2000)
- More than a third of young people aged 10 to 15 experienced at leastone personal crime over a 12-month period, with robbery and theft mostcommon (Home Office 2003)
- There are three volumes of Achieving Best Evidence in CriminalProceedings: Guidance for Vulnerable or Intimidated Witnesses, IncludingChildren available from the Crown Prosecution Service atwww.cps.gov.uk/publications/prosecution/index.html.
