Court as a witness, tips anyone been there?

[linktoinsanity]

i have only been a witness once. some minor road accident.

sat outside the court waiting to be called, when a group of local youths sat next to me.

them: "what are you in for"

me: "giving evidence"

Them: "are you a ******* GRASS"

me: ""

them: "ARE YOU, YOU ARE INIT, YOU ARE A ******* GRASS"

me: ""

them: "we are going to put your head through that ******** window"

needless to say they were not there to give evidence!

Quite shocking that the court didn't have security stop that tbh. It's pathetic.

Not in Middlesbrough was it?

 

[Von Smallhausen]

Im a prosecution witness, crown court, hefty sentence could be dropped on the individual in the dock and presently incarcerated for the past 7 months on remand, cant discuss the case details so please dont ask.

how hard is it to keep your cool against a defense barrister, got to keep this together cant be loosing my temper here, but I hate to be called a liar when im just telling people what happened, so anyone been there before?

Just be cool.

A defence barrister may try to get you to lose your cool. It is what they are paid to do and it isn't personal

Be calm, tell the truth as it happened and if you don't know anything say you don't know.

At the end of the day it is not you who is on trial.

 

[Ev0]

Answer every question with a question or failing that just keep repeating that it was the 1 armed man.

IANAL so that advice could be totally wrong

 

[psalliss]

due to my job ive given evidence quiet a few times. make sure you speak to witness care if they are in the court you are attending and ask to speak to speak to cps prosecutor if your worried about anything or the police officer in the case.
reading between the lines of what your saying its a crown court trial which is easier as the judges dont take as much rubbish of the defence as they do in magistrates.
just answer the questions as honestly as you can and keep the answeres short and simple. try not to embelish on anything or offer an opinion unless you are asked to too, stick to whats in your statement.
if you dont know the answer say i dont know. i have gone a trial just saying yes, no and dont recall as cps should lead you through the evidence off your statement.

good luck

 

[Participant]

As soon as he or she questions your judgement / recollection, scream 'witness this' and give him a full brown-eyed moonie.

 

[Hitman_Leon]

I saw two witness care people on Wednesday as I was taken for a tour of the court by the DC who investigated the case (who btw is an absolute star, she's 1000% awesome), so I know the drill on witness care, seem nice people.

I wont be in the court room, as much as I want to see the parasite in the dock ive been told the judge will not allow it, its going to be video link from a secure suite, so its going to be interrogtion by web cam. I will be introduced to the prossecution barrister on the morning of the trial and given my statements to read over before the event. Ill first be questioned by the prossecution then passed to defence then back to prossecution depending on the outcome of defence questions.

The incarcerated defendant (parasite) has one last chance to plead he has a management and plea direction hearing next week.

 

[mac1st3]

Wow, they won't even let you in the room with him? must be bad

 

[Hitman_Leon]

Oh its bad, and he's looking at a long cage session, hopefully, im realistic though.

 

[The Halk]

I've never been a witness in court, but I've been on jury service and was selected for 3 juries - all 3 cases folded.

What I did notice was that it actually is quite like you see it on the telly. Cross examination is quite intense.

All you need to do though is just tell the truth - don't fill in the gaps.

If you didn't see the guy hit the other guy with the hammer, then say that. Don't say "He hit him with the hammer" and then later have to say "I didn't actually see it. But I did see him holding the hammer threateningly, and a few seconds later he was still holding it, and the other guy was on the ground".

Don't offer opinion. Again just stick to the bare facts.

Have some faith in justice. The judge in the court room I was in was quite frankly impressive. When he came to speak to the jury he was intelligent and engaging, he ran his court room well etc. I had full faith in him.

Finally if you do find yourself being badgered then it is human nature to try to satisfy the person asking the question. If they're asking a question and you don't know the answer, just keep repeating that you do not know the answer, no matter how many times they reword the question. You will quickly get the idea across that you're not going to have your testimony picked at until it collapses. Additionally if you are worried about fall out from testifying then the quicker and more impassive you are the less people will think about it. Which again means telling the simple truth, and not opinion or filling in the gaps with what must have happened.

 

[Hitman_Leon]

He had his chance to plea today and the coward did not enter one at all, so the trial is on, starts next Monday, ill post the result after it ends.

 

[Hitman_Leon]

Scumbag pleaded guilty this morning, tried to plead guilty to only the worse charges, the judge jumped down from him on high saying he was trying to make a mockery of pleading guilty and refused his plea unless he was pleading to all charges.

He pleaded guilty to all, multiple counts of offences against multiple children over a 14 year period. Judge said to him I know there are a lot of things you might want to get today like a sentece but you will have to wait, you are however looking at a very long prison term, he was dispatched back to prison.

I for one would have prefered he was dispatched on the spot.

Im vindicated without going to trial,

No questions on this thanks, it was just an update, ill post his sentence later after ive been to the sentence hearing.

 

[philjohn]

I for one would have prefered he was dispatched on the spot.

They probably have to weigh up a lot of things, take witness impact statements into account etc. They also don't want to mess anything up and leave him grounds for appeal.

 

[Hitman_Leon]

I meant dispatched by way of a gallows, sorry should have been clearer.

 

[Hitman_Leon]

He got served, I saw him go down after the judge tore him to pieces.

"filthy, perverted, deluded fool"

2 life sentences!.