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Other measures to protect witnesses
4.16
The Police do make efforts to assure witnesses of protection in many cases. In the most acute, they allow the witnesses to live in
safehouses. Because of the considerable expense involved, obviously this facility cannot be afforded to all witnesses in triad associated crime. Nor can such protection be provided for extensive periods of time. This is simply not practicable. There is no simple answer to the problem and legislation cannot prevent intimidation. Two non legislative possibilities are -
4.17
(a)
(b)
omitting addresses in witness
statements which are to be served on the defence; and
allocating police manpower to maintain a number of officers tasked to respond to witnesses who might be intimidated.
As regards paragraph 4.16 (a), it is possible to protect witnesses to the extent that they be not obliged to reveal their addresses in witness' statements. Further, it is not strictly necessary for a witness to give his address when he gives evidence at trial. These changes might reassure members of the public to some degree but it should be recognised that if someone is determined to find out the identity of a witness, it is by no means an impossible task. Furthermore, it should be pointed out that the defence are entitled to interview any person the prosecution wishes to call.
4.18
The option in paragraph 4.16 (b) would clearly afford extra protection to witnesses. One of the ways in which such protection could be achieved would be to assign an officer from the investigating team responsible for the case to maintain contact with either all the witnesses or at least the important witnesses in a case. To do so would have the benefit of providing the witnesses with a direct link with the Police in the event of attempted intimidation and would provide a considerable degree of moral support. As mentioned in paragraph 4.16, in the most serious cases, the Police do provide safe houses and assist with relocation.
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