RUNAWAY BAY, St Ann – Justice Minister and Attorney General A J Nicholson has enlisted the help of regional ombudsmen to push for the use of video technology during cases in which victims might find testifying in open court traumatic.

His comments come less than two months after a consultant in his ministry, Canute Brown, suggested that children may be able, by year-end, to give testimony to local courts via video links.

While the justice minister gave no indication whether this target would be met, he highlighted the benefits of using the technology that is available. A balance, he said, must be found between facilitating both the victim and the accused.

“The ombudsman must push for mechanisms to be put in place for the testimony of children and young persons to be given with the use of available technology, without compromising the due process guarantees to which an accused person is entitled,” Nicholson said.

He was speaking at the third biennial conference of the Caribbean Ombudsmen Association, which is now underway in St Ann.

It has long been argued that victims of crimes such as sexual abuse may find it difficult to take the witness stand – a fear that sometimes translates into the case being thrown out. There have also been concerns raised about the trauma experienced by young children who have to face their abusers in court.

In March, Brown, a former member of parliament and an attorney, had argued that allowing victims to testify using, for example, a video link, would reduce the trauma associated with testifying in open court. The concept, he said then, was not new to Jamaica but had previously only been used in civil cases.

With a video link system, the prosecutor or defence would be able to put questions to the victim who would testify from the confines of a safe location. The entire proceedings would be live.

Meanwhile, during his address at the conference, Nicholson also challenged the ombudsmen to push the governments of the region to enact systems that would ensure that all persons, irrespective of their physical or mental state, enjoy the full protection of the law.

“There is the necessity for substantial improvements to be made to old provisions dealing with the mentally challenged, whether concerning the issue of their fitness to plead and to participate in court proceedings, or their treatment, care and custody after a court returns a verdict adverse to them,” the justice minister said.

There have been a number of local cases in which persons who have been deemed unfit to enter a plea have been lost in the court system for years.

The justice minister also spoke of the need to address the treatment meted out to victims of crime who have long been treated as “footnotes” in the criminal justice system.

“We are aware that victims are often left with the view that proceedings in court, rather than providing relief and remedy, add further pain to the experience that they suffered as a result of the event itself,” Nicholson said.