Legal aspects of interviewing child witnesses

SARATH JAYAMANNE,
DEPUTY SOLICITOR GENERAL ATTORNEY GENERALS DEPARTMENT

Never losing sight of the child Place the child at the centre of what we do. That means understanding the perspective of the child, listening to the child and never losing sight of the child -Lord Laming in the Review into the death of Victoria Climbe -2003

INTRODUCTION
All investigators should be provided proper training in child development, interview techniques, evidence gathering, court testimony, and investigative methods.

FOCUS 1. UK 2. US 3. SRI LANKA?

Definition of child
"Child", a person under the age of 18 years United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child Children Acts 1989 and 2004 UK..

Definition of Child Abuse

"Abuse and neglect are forms of maltreatment of a child. Somebody may abuse or neglect a child by inflicting harm, or by failing to act to prevent harm. Children may be abused in a family or in an institutional or community setting, by those known to them or, more rarely, by a stranger. They may be abused by an adult or adults, or another child or children.

"Working Together to Safeguard Children A guide to inter-agency working to

safeguard and promote the welfare of children 2006" in UK

UK
Child Abuse History Form- When arriving at the scene, the front line officer should
have a copy of the child abuse history form which should provide,
Child information: name and date of birth. Guardian information: .Disclosure information: Behavior/environment: What behavioral characteristics are unusual? Where does the child go to school? Family problems:..Alleged perpetrator: List name, date of birth, address, Medical history. Attach any documentation. Home environment.Evidence: List all evidence gathered documenting abuse. Photograph all marks bruises on the child. Further child protection.

Follow-up to the Child Abuse History Form Follow-up Investigation The Interview Case Review-Review all of the materials and information available regarding the
alleged incident. This allows preparation of pertinent questions specific to the

incident and the child being interviewed.

The Interview Room The interview room should be one that is comfortable for the child, yet conducive to a proper interview. Toys, games and other distractions should be kept to a minimum. The room should be equipped with a video and audio system. The video cameras should be positioned on the comer of a wall near the ceiling where they will cause no distractions or discomfort for the child and the microphones should not be conspicuous in the room.

Protection Orders in UK
Section 46 of the Children Act 1989 IN UK permits any police constable, who has reasonable cause to believe that a child is at risk of significant harm, to remove the child to a place of safety, or to prevent the child from being removed from somewhere the child is safe e.g. a hospital.

US
Video/Audiotaping
All interviews should be videotaped and/or audio taped. The effective use of video or audio taping of child interviews can reduce the number of times a child is interviewed. This is being done in at least twenty-seven states and is also being utilized in many countries outside the United States including Canada, Holland and Great Britain.

 Conducting the Interview

The possibly most important step in the investigation is the interview of the child. The entire basis for proceeding with prosecution of an allegation of child abuse often hinges on this interview. There is no such thing as an easy interview, especially when dealing with a child abuse victim. No matter how many interviews the practitioner has conducted or participated in, each interview of a child presents a unique and sensitive setting.

Rapport Building: In the Interview Room

Introducing the Purpose of the Interview

The Interviewing Method and Technique

The Open Questioning Phase OpenQuestions cannot be answered by a "yes" or "no" and must never cause the child to paraphrase and parrot the information from the question back to the interviewer in the form of a yes/no answer.

Inappropriate questioning techniques

forced choice questions (e.g. did he have his hands inside or outside your clothes?); 74% of children respond simply with one or other choice rather than providing their own answer; multi-part questions (e.g. did he ask you to go upstairs with him and did you then go in the bedroom?); when two or more questions were embedded in a single enquiry, 71% of responses did not address all the issues raised; and, can you... (e.g. can you tell me about that?) questions; questions beginning in this way were more likely to be misunderstood or yield yes/no answers.

Closure of the interview

The closure stage of the interview should attempt to leave the child in a positive state of mind. It provides the opportunity for the interviewer to: summarise what the child has said; answer any questions from the child; thank the child for their time and effort; provide a contact name and telephone number; and, report the end-time of the interview.

Duration, pace and number of interviews The idea that interviews should never last more than one hour may explain complaints about the pace of some interviews: children in 43% of the interviews observed by Davies et al. (1995) in UK were judged to have been rushed into the questioning phase.

Appearance at court The court appearance itself may be a new, potentially traumatic experience for the child, rather than the satisfactory closure of the investigation In this section we consider: the long-term effects of court appearance; and, preparation of child witnesses for court.

Advantages of Video/Audio Taping

Properly conducted taped interviews generally reduce the number of times the child has to be interviewed. The recording preserves the integrity of the interview and provides an accurate record of the interview. The tape can be used to confront the accused. The tape can be used as a therapeutic tool. The tape can be used to ally children's fears of disbelief by parental figures and to confront disbelief or denial when it actually exists. The tape can be a deterrent to retractions. The tape can assist the child in preparing for his or her court appearance.

step-wise interview.
The United Kingdom, Germany, several other counties, and now United States state and local agencies are utilizing the step-wise interview. The step-wise interview minimizes the trauma of an interview as well as minimize the number of interviews. Tapes aid and support the prosecution of criminal cases of child sexual assault or juvenile court actions to protect dependent children.

Disadvantages of video recording: 1.Video/audiotaping a child in an interview setting violates the child's rights .2.Video/audiotaping a child is traumatizing to the child. 3.The taped interview can be used to impeach the alleged victim. This is if the child is inconsistent from one tape to the next.