25 July 2023 , 14:05
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Forcing offenders to attend court will “help their rehabilitation” as well as ensuring victims get justice, a leading expert said.
Victims' Commissioner for London Claire Waxman said criminals refusing to turn up to their sentencing hearings worsened the “grief and trauma for victims”.
But she also said it was “really important” for offenders to hear victims' personal statements in court.
“The mechanism for that statement is for that offender to really understand the harm and impact of their crime and they cannot start that rehabilitation process until they fully understand that,” Ms Waxman told the Lords Justice and Home Affairs committee.
“By trying to strengthen the victims’ family rights in that process… it is actually also going to help with the rehabilitation of offenders.”
Claire Waxman said criminals refusing to turn up to their sentencing hearings worsened the 'grief and trauma for victims' (parliamentlive.tv)Last week the mother of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel demanded an urgent change in the law to force killers to appear in the dock for sentencing. Cheryl Korbel called her daughter’s killer Thomas Cashman a “coward” after he refused to leave his cell to face justice and a family impact statement. The Mirror has launched the Face Justice campaign to call for the law to be changed as soon as possible.
Former Victims' Commissioner Dame Vera Baird, who was also giving evidence to the committee, said going to court was “not far off torture” for those involved. She said the more victims and witnesses are able to pre-record their evidence and cross examination by video, under Section 28, the better.
“People are terrified of going to court. One, it is very pompous, full of suave, self-confident people who are barristers, or solicitors, or police officers, or judges,” Dame Vera said. “But it is also full of the defendant and his family quite often and they meet them up at the court door. There is no guarantee they’ll have a separate entrance at all.
Dame Vera Baird said going to court was 'not far off torture' for those involved (parliamentlive.tv)"The more you can give Section 28 so they don’t have to go near the place and endure that, not far off, torture… the better.” Both experts said the Victims and Prisoners’ bill, which has been passing through parliament, needed to go further to support victims.
Ms Waxman said the legislation was “a landmark opportunity” to strengthen victims’ rights but she asserted that a Victims’ Commissioner needed to be in post “to make sure it has a meaningful impact for victims”.
The role has been empty since Dame Vera resigned almost a year ago in a damning letter saying the "criminal justice system is in chaos”.
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