Real-time recording at police stations mulled

PUTRAJAYA: More plans are on the cards to address sexual crimes against children, said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said yesterday.

One of the plans was to have real-time access to all reporting lodged by child victims of sexual crimes at police stations.

“We are looking at a possible mobile recording set-up, which we can discuss with the police,” she said after Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak launched a special court to deal with sexual crime cases involving child victims yesterday.

Citing a similar set-up at the special court, Azalina said, child witnesses would be in another room, where everything was being recorded in real-time.

“The real-time recording is an important process for criminal justice because there is no tampering,” said Azalina, who headed a task force on sexual crimes against children.

She said the task force would explore the possibility of providing child victims with a legal companion while they were placed in the waiting room for vulnerable witnesses.

“We are looking at allowing the Legal Aid Department to participate as legal companions because not every victim has the financial capacity to appoint lawyers to conduct a watching brief.”

At the special court, a child victim will be placed in the waiting room for vulnerable witness and will not be put in the same space as the accused.

The child victim and the accused will not cross paths because they will have different entrances and exits.

Azalina stressed the need to settle sexual crime cases involving children fast due to several reasons, including the age factor of victims.

When the child victim becomes an adult, Azalina said, the victim might feel uncomfortable to dredge up what had happened to her when she was a child.

With the launch of the special court, she warned perpetrators that they could not run away from justice.

“My tagline is: you can run, but you cannot hide.”