Police footage of statements taken from victims within the aftermath of home and household violence will probably be used as proof in prosecuting their attacker, beneath a raft of recent authorities reforms launched in state parliament right this moment.
Key factors:
- This system will imply victims wouldn’t must recount an incident in courtroom
- The footage can be taken by educated officers, from physique worn cameras
- The pilot will run for 12 months in Ipswich and Southport
The reforms are aimed toward lowering the trauma of victims having to retell their tales and the video-recorded statements will solely be allowed to be taken with a complainant’s “knowledgeable consent”.
The digital camera footage can be taken by educated cops, most certainly from body-worn cameras.
The video statements would be used because the sufferer’s “proof in chief” for home violence-related offences and breaches of home violence orders in 12-month trials on the Southport and Ipswich magistrates courts.
Legal professional-Normal and Minister for the Prevention of Home and Household Violence, Shannon Fentiman, mentioned the pilot program within the proposed invoice would higher assist home and household violence victims throughout courtroom hearings.
“These reforms embrace a spread of safeguards designed to restrict the trauma and defend the privateness of victims who present their proof beneath the pilot,” she mentioned in a press release to ABC Information.
“The Palaszczuk Authorities is at all times methods we will higher assist victims to come back ahead and maintain perpetrators to account.
“We all know that having to recount a home violence incident throughout a courtroom listening to may be extraordinarily traumatic for the sufferer.
The police video footage would be used as an official assertion as evidence-in-chief and never for cross-examination.
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Laws for using proof would not substitute the admissibility of different police-recorded proof that might ordinarily be used earlier than the courtroom, a spokesperson for Ms Fentiman mentioned.
They mentioned the finer particulars of the pilot, together with whether or not it might apply to committal proceedings for extra severe offences in these courts, will should be finalised by session, significantly with the Chief Justice of the Peace as soon as the laws has handed, which will probably be subsequent yr after it has been debated in the home.
Ms Fentiman mentioned whereas comparable measures have been utilized in Queensland courts for a number of years for weak witnesses, together with kids, “it will be important that proof may be obtained concerning the impacts and experiences which might be distinctive to home and household violence circumstances”.
The initiative was born out of the 2015 Not Now, Not Ever report’s suggestions that the Legal professional-Normal, in session with the Chief Justice of the Peace and Chief Decide, implement different proof procedures for victims of home and household violence, offering proof in associated felony issues.
The advice additionally included consideration be given to permitting the admissibility of any video recordings made on the time of preliminary police intervention.
Video-recorded proof of home and household violence victims utilized in different states, together with NSW and Tasmania, have enabled victims to inform their story whereas it’s contemporary of their thoughts and never within the presence of perpetrators.
