Rationing defence intermediaries under the April 2016 Criminal Practice Direction

Journal article

Equality of arms for child and other vulnerable defendants, in particular access to the special measures routinely provided to prosecution witnesses with the same vulnerabilities, has been contentious since 1999. Much progress has been forced through rulings by courts concerned about such defendants’ capacity to cope with the demands of the adversarial trial. This progress appears to have been reversed by the April 2016 Criminal Practice Direction stating that the appointment of defendant intermediaries should be “rare” for the defendant’s testimony, and “extremely rare” for the entire trial. This article considers the legal options for challenging this retrograde step.

Authors: Hoyano, L; Rafferty, A

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Sweet and Maxwell
• Journal: Criminal Law Review
• Volume: 2
• Pages: 93-105
• Publication date: 2017-02-01
• Acceptance date: 2016-11-13
• ISSN: 0011-135X
• Keywords: vulnerable defendants; vulnerable witnesses; equality of arms; intermediaries