Letter: Use of children's evidence in court

Sir: Bea Campbell's helpful article on the plight of child victims of abuse within the criminal justice system throws light on the difficulties experienced by professionals who have to interview children under the new Memorandum of Good Practice guidelines.

As a child psychiatrist who was a member of the steering group that produced the memorandum, I have to admit that the initial feedback on its use by experienced practitioners is negative. However, the memorandum does introduce for the first time a research-based and methodical approach to interviewing children. This is much to be welcomed after the ludicrously adversarial criticisms of professional interviewing skills prevalent in civil courts in the mid- and late-1980s, which did little to offer constructive alternatives to practitioners.

However, I wish that Bea Campbell was right when she says that: 'Judge Pigot's recommendations on videoing children's evidence . . . were inscribed in the 1991 Criminal Justice Act.' Most unfortunately, the opposition of a small number of adversarially minded barristers meant that Judge Pigot's main recommendation (ie, that the child should be saved from going into court at all by giving a statement on video instead) has not yet been implemented.

The result is that the original videoed evidence can later be used to discredit the child's live evidence in the witness box. Such discrediting will be achieved by defence barristers, in cross-examination, asking the sort of leading questions to the child which would cause howls of protest if used, on video, by the interviewers to help the child to speak in the first place.

No amount of guidance on interviewing practice will curb the problems of an adversarial system that was designed for adults, not children. The obvious answer to this sad situation is for the full Pigot recommendations to be implemented and for child witnesses to be freed from the trauma of re-abuse by the court process.

Yours sincerely,

EILEEN VIZARD

Consultant Child Psychiatrist

Young Abusers Project

The Tavistock Clinic

London, NW3

21 October