Victims charged tens of thousands of pounds for court docs after incorrect legal advice

Get the free Morning Headlines e-mail for information from our reporters internationally

Sign as much as our free Morning Headlines e-mail

Domestic abuse and sexual violence victims are being charged as much as tens of thousands of pounds to entry court scripts after being wrongly suggested to not attend court, The Independent has discovered.

Victims have described how cops, the Crown Prosecution Service and barristers have advisable that they don’t return into court after giving proof and don’t attend their perpetrator’s sentencing.

This signifies that they don’t typically hear the defence of their attackers and are then left with unanswered questions on their court circumstances which might solely be resolved by paying the excessive price of court transcripts.

David Challen, son of Sally Challen, who was launched from jail in a landmark case after killing her husband after a long time of psychological abuse, stated he had struggled to maneuver on from the trauma of the case as a result of he had been blocked from discovering out what had occurred in court with out paying a hefty invoice.

Claire Waxman, London’s Victims’ Commissioner, advised The Independent that victims are being wrongly warned that going again into the court will make them seem “bitter” or “vindictive” and hurt their possibilities of securing justice towards their perpetrator.

“Especially if you are vulnerable and have used special measures for evidence, it is thought the judge won’t look kindly on you,” she added.

Ms Waxman defined most victims she had encountered complied with the incorrect advice they got and didn’t return into the court.

Victims should not given the choice of watching the trial by way of a video hyperlink and are charged as much as tens of thousands of pounds for a transcript of the court case, she added.

Ms Waxman referred to the case of a rape sufferer who was advised it might price her round £35,000 to get a transcription of her court case – including that the sufferer was solely current whereas giving proof and there was an acquittal so she wished solutions.

She is looking for amendments to be made to the Victims and Prisoners Bill – due again within the House of Lords on 24 January – to make sure victims are in a position to entry transcripts of crown court hearings for free, with a selected name for free transcripts of the choose’s sentencing remarks and for all sentencing remarks to be made public.

The commissioner is also particularly concerned that victims should be able to access the judge’s summing up remarks for free if there is an acquittal as they can help understand how a verdict was reached. Justice agencies must be trained about the victim’s right to attend their trial and for this right to be explicitly stated in the victim’s code, she added.

Speaking to The Independent in an exclusive interview, Mr Challen said he has been blocked from accessing court transcripts from his mother’s trial unless he forks out £1,400.

“It is a denial of service to a victim of crime, essentially because there’s not enough in the kitty,” Mr Challen, a home abuse campaigner, stated. “This criminal justice system can’t even offer us that basic empathy to allow us to go through the events that we have lived through.”

In 2019, Sally Challen’s homicide conviction was altered to manslaughter and she or he was allowed to stroll free from jail after serving eight years.

The case marked the primary time the defence of coercive and controlling behaviour was utilized in a homicide trial. Coercive management turned a felony offence solely in 2015 and was not extensively understood as a sort of home violence on the time of her trial.

Mr Challen defined he has been unable to entry two of the 4 transcripts he requested from the courts – including he can’t get the transcript for his mom’s authentic homicide trial from 2011 as he found the file had been deleted.

The 36-year-old stated he has additionally been denied entry to his mom’s 2019 enchantment listening to except he pays £1,400, along with his request to enter the courts to take heed to an audio file of the listening to rejected this week.

“It’s a loss of a part of your life and your traumatic experiences,” he added. “It means I cannot have closure. I cannot recollect what I said. I cannot recollect what other people said. I have to go off my memory. And it robs you, essentially, as a victim of crime, of your emotional capacity to come to terms with what you’ve experienced.”

Mr Challen stated he suffers from PTSD and advised the courts that well being professionals had suggested him to get the transcripts to assist him discover closure.

“The court system has been traumatising for me from start to finish as it would be for most victims of crime in the current state it is. But to be delivered this really just compounds the issues further. It traumatises me once again. It just treats me as a number, a name on the system and a cost attributed to it, and I’m just not worth that cost.”

Ms Waxman, who has been a sufferer of stalking for virtually 20 years, stated she had by no means been again into court after giving proof and has by no means attended her perpetrator’s sentencing listening to because of being suggested not to take action by cops.

She stated she had at all times wished to return into the court however was fearful of jeopardising her possibilities of justice – explaining this implies she typically has a poor understanding of her stalker’s sentencing.

“Many victims struggle to recall what was said in court, given the trauma they are experiencing, the lack of good support, and the complex language and legal terms,” Ms Waxman added.

She defined victims typically really feel like they’ll’t transfer on from their trauma with out correctly understanding what occurred in court as she warned the excessive price of court transcripts is exacerbating victims’ anguish.

“When you are in a court battle with a perpetrator, the trauma hasn’t necessarily been processed,“ she added. “You are still in it. It is afterwards when that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) develops. Victims are left more in the dark than anyone else.”

Ellen Miller, the interim chief govt of main home abuse charity Refuge, stated: “For those survivors whose cases actually make it to court, the proceedings can be deeply traumatic.”

She defined this implies many victims are dissuaded from going to court in any respect. Meanwhile, those that do attend might discover it very exhausting to observe what is definitely happening.

“Access to the transcripts of their court proceedings should be available for survivors who have shown immense courage in pursuing justice against their perpetrator,” Ms Miller added. “Charging survivors exorbitant fees to access these transcripts, makes them inaccessible and is a denial of justice that can cause further delay to survivors’ healing process. We urge the justice secretary to recognise survivor’s right to justice by enabling all survivors to access their transcripts free of charge.”

A spokesperson for the Crown Prosecution stated: “Victims have a right to choose whether to attend the rest of a trial after they have given evidence and there is no CPS policy to advise them otherwise.”