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The frightened witness

The situation

You are prosecuting counsel in a trial of Rudd, who is charged with assault. The only witness who identifies him, Mrs Tavish, says she will not come to court. You want to put her police statement in evidence. You asked an AI assistant for a first memo and have the file open beside it.

What the AI was asked

Advise whether Mrs Tavish’s police statement can be admitted at Rudd’s trial if she does not attend.

Every court, statute and person in this exercise is fictional (the Republic of Eastmark). Use only the source pack below, as you would use the real documents: nothing outside it counts.

The AI’s memo

For each sentence, decide: is it supported by the source pack, or is there a problem? Choose the kind of problem if you can.

1.Mrs Tavish identified Rudd in a signed police statement of 12 March 2024, and she is the only witness who identifies him.
2.Under section 30, a statement made out of court and offered to prove the truth of what it says is inadmissible unless an exception applies.
3.None of the categories in section 31 applies, because Mrs Tavish is alive, well and living at a known address.
4.R v Halloran establishes that a witness’s letter saying she is frightened is enough, by itself, to admit her statement.
5.Under section 32A, the court may admit the statement automatically where the accused is known to have threatened witnesses before.
6.The court does not need to consider whether a screen or a video link would allow Mrs Tavish to give evidence.
7.If the court is satisfied that Mrs Tavish’s fear is genuine, her statement is admissible.
8.Rudd threatened Mrs Tavish through an associate, which explains her fear.
9.In Halloran the Court said that fear ‘needs no proof beyond the witness’s own word’.
10.Because her statement is the only evidence identifying Rudd, it should be admitted: without it the prosecution fails.
11.Where the statement is the sole or decisive evidence against the accused, the judge must be especially cautious and admission is not automatic.
12.On the file, the application faces real difficulty: fear has not yet been proved on evidence, and the court would first have to consider whether special measures could enable Mrs Tavish to testify.

0 of 12 sentences reviewed. Sentences you leave unmarked count as supported.

The source pack

The only documents you have. Open each one and check the memo against it.

On 12 March 2024 Mrs Tavish gave a signed statement to the police identifying Rudd as the man who struck the victim. She is the only person who does. The trial is listed for 15 July 2024.

On 2 June 2024 she wrote to the police: ‘I will not attend court because I am frightened.’ An officer’s note records that a man known to be an associate of Rudd was seen outside her home on 28 May. The note does not say that anyone spoke to her or threatened her. She is alive, well, and living at the same address.

Professional skills training with fictional material. It is not legal advice and is not accredited by any court, regulator or professional body.