Children, hearsay, and the courts: A perspective from the United Kingdom.

Abstract

Legal and procedural reforms to accomodate children's testimony have continued apace in the United Kingdom since the Criminal Justice Act of 1988. This act introduced live links or closed-circui t television) for child witnesses appearing at Crown Courts and amended the corroboration requirement; the Criminal Justice Act of 1991 permitted videotaped evidence-in-chief, such that investigative interviews carried out by police officers and social workers replace the child's live evidence-in-chief at court (the child still has to appear for crossexamination). Memorandum of Good Practice (Home Office, 1992) was issued by the government to advise on the way such interviews were undertaken. This article reviews the implementation of these and other reforms in relation to the law on hearsay and child witnesses in England and Wales, highlighting both the progress and the difficulties encountered. Further reforms to the adversarial system as it affects children's evidence may yet be introduced. Legal reforms to accommodate child witnesses in the United Kingdom have mirrored those taking place in America, but, unrestricted by constitutional rights to confrontation, have in fact gone further in promoting children's welfare in the courtroom. In England and Wales, the use of live links (videolinks or closed-circuit television) is permitted by the Criminal Justice Act of 1988, and videotaped interviews with children can replace their live evidence-in-chief as a result of the Criminal Justice Act of 1991. Both these innovations are subject to certain procedural requirements and the discretion of the judge, yet their existence in legislation signifies an important change on the value placed on children's evidence and in the way hearsay has been approached in the country with regard to child witness testimony. In this article, we describe hearsay rules in the United Kingdom and present an overview of the recent legislative and procedural reforms pertaining to children's testimony in England (and Wales). It is important to note at the outset that within the United Kingdom, Scotland and Northern Ireland operate independent legal systems, which although broadly similar, do approach children's evidence in different ways (e.g., Flin, Kearney, & Murray, 1996). For example, in Scotland corroboration is still a requirement in all cases before criminal courts, but live links