Commissioner calls for changes in way witnesses are handled by judicial system as parents recover from 'shocking' treatment
Britain's courts will see sweeping changes in favour of the victims of serious crime in the light of the Milly Dowler murder trial, the victims' commissioner has vowed.
Louise Casey said she will put forward a report to the justice secretary Kenneth Clarke within the next two weeks which will conclude that the "shocking" treatment of the Dowler family during the trial of their daughter's murderer is just part of a wider picture that has seen dozens of relatives devastated by experiences with the justice system.
Casey, the commissioner for victims and witnesses, said: "My report's recommendations for change will be taken seriously and acted upon at the highest levels." She welcomed yesterday's comments from Mark Rowley, the chief constable of Surrey police, who said he was "shocked" by the way Milly's family were cross-examined and their personal lives thrown into the spotlight during the trial of serial killer Levi Bellfield, who was jailed for life on Thursday at the Old Bailey.
Rowley also called for changes in the way the courts treated witnesses and said it was a "most bizarre and distressing coincidence" that the Dowler family had their privacy "destroyed" at the same time as celebrities were granted super-injunctions to protect details of their personal lives. "Here is someone who doesn't want celebrity, whose daughter has been killed, but is being vilified and humiliated. It is completely incongruous and unnecessary."
He said that victims and witnesses were the "lifeblood" of the justice system. "Unless we treat them carefully and thoughtfully, fundamentally it undermines the system in the long term. Somehow we need to find a different way into the system that looks at, with equal vigour: how can we care for the victims and witnesses in these cases, while testing the evidence, and how do we protect privacy as well?
"I'm not saying, 'Never go personal,' but if you go personal then, for goodness sake, think about the dignity of the people involved. There needs to be stronger practice advice so judges are not worried about appeal by restricting defence questioning."
The director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC, said the Bellfield trial had raised "fundamental questions" about the treatment of witnesses in the courtroom.
Casey said she welcomed the comments of both Starmer and Rowley. "I very much hope that the shock and anger that many people feel about the lack of dignity, respect and protection that the Criminal Justice System afforded to the Dowlers will mean that, when my report into the treatment of those bereaved by murder, manslaughter and culpable road death is published in the next couple of weeks, its recommendations for change will be taken seriously and acted upon at the highest level," she said yesterday.
Insiders said Casey had been moved by the families she had met over the past year and shocked by some of their experiences, and was in no mood to accept compromises on her recommendations.
Both Milly's parents had broken down in court after being cross-examined by a defence trying to prove she was unhappy and alienated from her family. But many legal experts are wary of change restricting every person's right to a full and vigorous defence.
John Cooper, QC, an elected member of the Bar Council and visiting Professor of Law at Cardiff University, defended the rigour of British justice system: "We should not let Levi Bellfield hijack the criminal justice system. The system and the process works well, day in day out, up and down the country. It is there to ensure there are no miscarriages of justice and the prosecution case is tested in accordance with the defendant's instructions, whether those instructions are palatable or not.
"It is important in any democratic society for a defendant's case, however repulsive it may seem, to be put at trial to be accepted or, as was in this case, rejected by a jury."
Mark Leech, editor of the national prisoners' newspaper ConVerse, said calls for reform were unnecessary: "The judge already acts as a safeguard to unnecessary and intrusive questioning which falls outside what is legitimate to the defence."
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