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.

The British Government announced this week that police called to domestic violence scenes are to carry Polaroid cameras, part of the biggest shake-up of domestic violence legislation in three decades.

The bill introduces tougher penalties for those who beat partners or children. “If someone is beaten, the police will be able to take a picture at the scene with a Polaroid and this can be taken in evidence,” Britain’s solicitor general Harriet Harman said.

Professor Bacik, in her submission, said some studies showed as many as 46% of domestic violence victims withdraw complaints because of intimidation.

“Police in the southern California city of San Diego are instructed to investigate domestic violence based on the assumption that the victim will be unable to participate in any subsequent trial and must conduct interviews with all potential witnesses, including children and neighbours; gather photographic evidence; preserve physical evidence and complete a standard form checklist,” Ms Bacik said.

The committee is hosting a series of hearings on the criminal justice system, particularly in relation to intimidation of witnesses, the treatment of victims and the wider issue of how to tackle gangland violence.

Ms Bacik and the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL), whose members also attended the committee meeting, argued legislation already existed to combat gangland crime and spoke against membership of a criminal gang being made an offence in its own right. While criminal gang members have been convicted before the Special Criminal Court, the ICCL’s Aisling Reidy argued against any extension of the court’s remit and indeed said there should be a winding down of its use.