Charter of rights urged to spare grieving witnesses court agony

A REPORT this week will recommend changes to the criminal justice system to ensure victims and their families are treated with “humanity, dignity and respect”, its author has said.

Victims tsar Louise Casey said the system’s treatment of victims – including the family of murdered teenager Milly Dowler, who were subjected to brutal cross-examination during her killer’s trial – “made my jaw drop”.

Writing in the News of the World, Ms Casey said victims and their families are not given the consideration they need. The newspaper predicted that her report, being handed to Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke on Wednesday, will recommend a “charter of rights for witnesses” to protect the privacy and dignity of those giving evidence in court.

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It will recommend that judges be given a responsibility to protect witnesses against disrespectful questioning and propose changes in the law to enshrine the principle that “the trial process should not itself expose bereaved families to avoidable intimidation, humiliation or distress”.

The Victims’ Commissioner – who previously served as Tony Blair’s “respect tsar” – said: “When I started working for the rights of victims I thought I was unshockable. But what I have found over the last year has made my jaw drop. I have been looking at the treatment of families like the Dowlers who have had their lives ripped apart by criminals. Like most people I assumed that they would get all the help they need and that the Criminal Justice System would be on their side.

“But what I discovered is that they are often not given the support, care or consideration they deserve. Although some things are better, many are still treated as if they are an ‘inconvenience’ in the working of the system.”

Mark Leech, the editor of prisoners’ newspaper ConVerse, said: “Until a defendant is found guilty by a jury they possess exactly the same status as a witness, and if the prosecution can ask searching, deeply personal, questions of a defendant there is no case for arguing that a witness should be treated any differently.”

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“Loading the criminal justice system in favour of the witness is just as wrong as loading it in favour of a defendant, justice demands equality, and in any event changes are unnecessary because the judge is there already to limit questions that are outside the boundaries of what is legitimate to the defence.”

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