In the Media

Keep child witnesses out of court, says former LCJ Judge

PUBLISHED November 21, 2013
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Child witnesses should be kept out of the courtroom and give their evidence via prerecorded videos, the former lord chief justice said today.

Giving the Bar Council's annual law reform committee lecture, Lord Judge said the requirement for the physical presence of a child witness or victim in the court building should be seen as an 'antediluvian hangover from laughable far off days of the quill pen and the ink well'.

Each year around 40,000 children and very young adults give evidence in criminal cases. The speech follows concerns about high-profile cases in which child victims and witnesses were subjected to repeated cross-examination by counsel for numerous defendants in the same case.

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