Judge condemns Truss for rape trial mix-up
THE Justice Secretary has been criticised by the country’s most senior judge, who said that she had caused confusion with her announcement of new rules for rape victims giving evidence at trial.
Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd was scathing about the way Liz Truss handled an announcement about piloting the pre-recording of evidences.
Last week the Ministry of Justice published an announcement that said victims of sex crimes “will soon be able to have their cross-examination prerecorded before trial”. It said rollout of the scheme had been “fast-tracked” and “will now begin in September”.
Ms Truss then told the Sunday Times, which said she was “bringing forward plans for recorded cross-examination for all adult sexual offences tried in crown courts after three cities used taped evidence in child sex cases”.
However Lord Thomas said that this was inaccurate and he had been forced to write to judges to correct it.
Lord Thomas said that the pilot for children and other vulnerable witnesses giving evidence, which had taken place in three courts, in Liverpool, Kingston and Leeds, had been successful and the measures would now be extended to other courts.
A separate pilot for victims in sex offence cases would simultaneously be started in those three courts but would not yet be available nationwide.
Lord Thomas told a House of Lords committee: “I regret to say that we had to correct a serious misapprehension that had arisen as a result of what the ministry said at the end of last week about the roll-out, and the way we were proceeding with pre-recorded evidence. They misunderstood the thing completely.”