Day in court (almost)

Following the incident back in March, I subsequently received – to my surprise – a letter from the Criminal Justice System, asking me to go to court to give evidence. Had not expected this given that the police officer who took my statement had advised me that she didn’t think the case would go any further. They do ask you as part of taking a statement whether you’d be willing to go to court if necessary, and I had admittedly said Yes, purely to show willing and not imagining that I’d actually have to do it. However. 

Subsequently had various contacts with the Thames Valley Witness Care Unit - WCUs apparently having been set up as part of the No Witness, No Justice project, a joint police and CPS initiative to try to ensure witnesses get a better deal.

As part of this being called to give evidence business, I encountered the poisoned concept of a ‘reserve list’. Seemingly Crown Courts don’t set actual dates for most trials (though I read somewhere that magistrates courts apparently do) but instead put them on ‘reserve lists’ for specified two week periods, during which time they’ll be put on the list of trials for the following day if there’s sufficient court space. If the trial doesn’t get heard during that two-week period, the court apparently just gets to set another two-week period, during which witnesses have to put their lives on hold again and be ready to drop everything to go to court the following day. No idea how long this could potentially go on. In the event, I got the call last Thursday afternoon to attend court on Friday, the last day of the two-week window, so I dutifully turned up at Aylesbury Crown Court for 10am on Friday morning. Was met by a pleasant volunteer from the Witness Service – a charity, not the same as the Witness Care Unit – who showed me and two other women downstairs into the basement and into a tiny little room which is apparently all Aylesbury has by way of witness facilities. There isn’t even anywhere to get a drink – you have to ask permission to go out of the building and buy a takeaway coffee and bring it back. The Witness Service man did express sympathy for us re the facilities and told us that if only our cases were being heard at Amersham, that has a lovely witness suite. Great; thanks for that.

The two other women who arrived at the same time as me – one in her 50s, one in (I’d guess) her 80s and evidently her mother – were connected with the other case being heard at Aylesbury that day, but it wasn’t long before the victim in my case turned up with his mum and stepdad, completely filling the tiny witness room. In fairness to the lad he did thank me for helping him, and his (bright orange spray-tanned) mother thanked me and shook my hand. However, both the lad (I’m calling him a lad; he was apparently 25, but I am getting quite old) and his mother were seemingly unaware that they should not be talking in any detail about the case in my hearing, or else were unwilling to pay any attention to this rule, as they related the details of it to the other woman and her mother (in exchange, 50-something was v. keen to share the details of her assault by her schizophrenic neighbour armed with a screwdriver). Eventually I got up and said I’d have to leave the room as they were talking about the case, and wandered the corridor for a bit until Witness Service Man (henceforth WSM) returned and allowed me to sit in the office along with another witness in the other case, who’d arrived too late to fit into the witness sitting room (the latter a somewhat overblown term for the actual facilities).

By 1pm neither of the cases had been called – this despite the fact that we’d all been told to turn up for 10am – and WSM came to tell us that the lawyers were breaking for lunch. Great. Bought an M&S sandwich and mooched about Aylesbury, imagining lawyers in a banqueting hall somewhere laughing and throwing bones over their shoulders. Returned to the court at 2pm to be told apologetically by WSM that it had been decided that my evidence was not required and I was being released. While undoubtedly relieved not to have to be cross-examined, which I can’t say I’d been looking forward to, was peeved that this couldn’t have been decided earlier in the proceedings – ideally, before I’d used up a morning of my life driving to Aylesbury and then sitting in a cellar for three hours. Bade goodbye to WSM and returned to my car and thence to Reading.

Spirits rose slightly on sunny pleasant drive on country roads via Chinnor and then my usual route south via Watlington. Went for dinner that evening with Ruth at the Suwanna where I shared my views on The Justice System In This Country.

Postscript 
Received an email update today from Kirsty, my Witness Care Officer, as follows:

I have now been able to speak to the Crown Prosecution Service at Court who confirmed the reason you did not need to give evidence on Friday was that the defence agreed that your statement was OK to use without them needing to cross examine you. I’m sorry that defence only made this decision last minute.

Perhaps my statement was so watertight that the defence couldn't possibly see how they'd pick any holes in it?

Kirsty later sent a further follow up to say that there had been a verdict, and that the defendant had been found not guilty to one of the two counts, and that the jury had been unable to reach a verdict on the second count. Apparently the latter means that the CPS has to decide whether to proceed to a retrial on the second count at some point. Currently unsure as to whether the 'no verdict' count is one that my evidence would relate to. Kirsty added optimistically "Hopefully if they do proceed to a re trial you will not need to attend", but we'll see.