Legal error adds to anguish of victims
IT is astonishing that a legislative amendment introduced as part of reforms of the law relating to sexual offences went undiscovered in Northern Ireland for nine years. The only explanation given is that no criminal justice agencies or relevant legal bodies were informed of the change in the law and so they continued to deal with cases as they had previously.
However, the oversight had real life consequences with 15 people having their convictions in cases involving 17 victims now having those convictions quashed.
Eleven of the victims were children when the offences, which ranged from indecent assault to unlawful carnal knowledge, were committed.
In a way those victims have had the justice they felt they deserved snatched away from them. They believed the offenders — all tried between 2009 and 2017 — had been punished and the cases closed. Now they don’t know what will happen.
It should also be remembered that those convicted are also the victims of an injustice.
The Public Prosecution Service is considering if fresh prosecutions should take place which is an undoubted strain on those involved in the cases.
The legislative change, introduced before the devolution of justice powers to Northern Ireland, removed three specific offences from the list of those that could be heard before magistrates. But with noone being informed of the changes the cases went ahead as hitherto.
Most people, even those with the merest knowledge of the legal and justice system, will find it difficult to believe that the prosecution service, legal teams and magistrates all failed to notice at some stage of the change to the law or that legislators did not notice that the law was being wrongly administered for nine years.
Justice Minister Naomi Long should order an investigation into what went wrong and why.
For this is not just a legal blip affecting a specific number of people. It will have caused anguish to the victims, and may also put off others reporting such crimes to the authorities.
We know from Sir John Gillen’s review of the law regarding serious sexual offences that a majority of victims fail to contact the police. Sir John was keen to emphasise that victims needed to be confident in the ability of the system to deliver justice to them. While the crimes in this case were of a lesser seriousness they nevertheless would have impacted strongly on the victims, given that so many were children.
Whatever happens in future we must ensure that the public retains faith in the justice system and will work with it.