The most awaited report regarding the legal consul for rape case victims says that providing separate legal representation to the victims would upset the balance of the judicial system.
According to the report victims will be given a counsel of their own if they provide evidences for their sexual history, but such representations should happen only during a trial.
“Developing an ambitious implementation plan is a priority” says Minister for Justice Helen McEntee today morning.
It was a five-person working group that completed the review of the report, the group was chaired by barrister and law lecturer Tom O’Malley. The report was finalized following this review of the legal protections obtainable to complaints in sexual assaults.
Rugby players Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding were set free from a rape case which had said to be occurred at a house party in Belfast in 2018. After this case the then ministry for justice Charlie Flanagan asked Mr. O’Malley to carry out his findings.
O’Malley’s 140-page report makes suggestions regarding the support of the victims and also about the training of advocates. The report doesn’t suggest that the victims should be awarded with separate legal representations throughout the trial.
According to the report the prosecutor must not stop the accused one from getting a decent and fair trial. This is also applicable to the counsel appointed to the victim.
The report says that there “Must be equality of arms, in so far as that can be achieved, between the accused and the prosecution” and that “the introduction of separate legal representation for one category of witness throughout the entire trial would risk upsetting that well-established balance.”
As per the report, the prosecutors are not allowed to coach then victims or witnesses. This is applicable to any lawyer who appears directly for the victim.