Using Pre-recorded Evidence to Help Rape Victims
The prosecution of rape and other sexual offences is a good barometer for any society. The taboo around this subject, alongside other factors, means that it has often been difficult to secure convictions but a change in the law last week should help victims achieve justice.
Cross-examination of victims and witnesses can often be traumatic and has never sat well with the adversarial nature of proceedings in England and Wales. However now it will at least be possible for that cross-examination to be video-recorded and then played later on at trial.
There are many advantages to this. The recording takes place closer to the time of the alleged offence and so memories are more likely to be fresh. More importantly, cross-examination in this setting avoids the glare of a full trial and so can avoid undue stress.
Achieving this while also ensuring that there is a fair trial is not easy and so it will be up to judges to make a decision about pre-recording evidence on a case-by-case basis. Nevertheless it has to be hoped that this will be facilitated in the vast majority of cases.
This reform is part of the wider Rape Review Action Plan that is seeking to change the way that rape is dealt with by the legal system. The understanding is that this has to be a co-ordinated effort between the police, the CPS and the courts to ensure that victims feel supported throughout and justice can be done in a fair and effective manner.
In the past there has often been criticism levelled at the way that rape cases are handled in this country but it is gratifying to see that this is beginning to change.
This week in the podcast we discuss the Attorney General’s Reference in the Colston Four case. After the defendants were acquitted a lot of questions arose about how protests should be treated. This decision from the Court of Appeal helps to shed some light on this issue although the law is still far from settled.
Episode link: https://uklawweekly.com/2022-ewca-crim-1259/
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Marcus