Intimidation seen likely

Press, 23 November 1988, Page 14

Intimidation seen likely

PA Wellington Witnesses would be open to intimidation and might stop co-operating with police if defendants were allowed to see police briefs of evidence, says the Police Association industrial advocate, Mr Graham Harding.

A unanimous Court of Appeal decision recently said defendants in district court .hearings should be allowed to see briefs of evidence of police witnesses.

Mr Harding said that even if witnesses’ names and addresses were not included in the briefs, in many cases a defendant would not have to be a Rhodes Scholar to know who they were.

This would leave witnesses more vulnerable to intimidation by defendants and the delays in cases coming to court would mean there was more time for intimidation to happen. Letting defendants see witnesses’ evidence be-

fore trials made it even more unlikely people would come forward to co-operate with the police, he said. Giving evidence in court was not easy. Witnesses often had to deal with “pretty offensive people.” At court, people giving evidence were often forced to wait in “shabby little rooms, sharing a bench with the person they were going to point the finger at in court,” he said.