Gardaí 'should be given cameras’

IRELAND should follow Britain’s lead and equip gardaí attending domestic violence calls with cameras, a leading criminologist argued yesterday.

Gardaí would immediately be able to record injuries and other evidence proving that a crime occurred - therefore reducing the need to rely on witness statements to convict, said Ivana Bacik, Reid Professor of Law at Trinity College in Dublin, after delivering a submission to the Oireachtas justice committee.

A large number of home violence cases fail because witnesses, mainly women, retract their statements or refuse to testify, in many cases because of intimidation, according to Professor Bacik.