IfJ would like to thank the Office of the Police Crime and Victims’ Commissioner-Durham and Susan Stewart (Speech and Language Therapist, Registered Intermediary and resource author) for allowing IfJ to host these communication friendly resources for witnesses and victims, and Designs Unique for creating the graphics and illustrations.
All PDF's are available as downloads at the bottom of this page.
These PDF resources include:
a) Giving Evidence (Witnesses in Courts)
This explains and shows the process of giving evidence at 6 courts used by Durham witnesses.
These are Durham Crown Court, Newcastle Crown Court, Teesside Crown Court, Peterlee Magistrates’ Court, Newton Aycliffe Magistrates’ Court and Teesside Magistrates’ Court.
These unique court pdfs include judiciary approved photos of the specific courts and easy to understand language. The content explains:
- things like who works at a court
- pre-trial visits, special measures
- using the live link to answer questions, answering the court questions
- what might happen to the defendant, sentencing and fitness to plead.
The resources have been deliberately created so services nationally could also provide their own judiciary approved local court photos in future, to be inserted into the pdf template by the graphic designer. (A nominal designer’s fee would need funding by the commissioning service). This gives these Durham court pdf resources future national application to benefit all witnesses.
b) ‘The Victim Personal Statement Resource Pack’.
This is a pdf which includes resources to assist professionals who need to gain a victim personal statement from a witness. This resource will help a victim understand what a Victim Personal Statement (VPS) is, plan for and then give their VPS.
It includes visual resources to assist both adult witnesses with reasonable verbal and written communication skills, and also children, young people and vulnerable adults with a communication need.
Please download the PDF resources and consider making a charitable donation to IfJ to support their work to promote fair access to justice for all.
IfJ members can also access powerpoints of the court photos for use with individual witnesses via this member only page. Just make sure you are logged in to be able to access the page content.
Information about gaining a court pdf for your local court can be gained by contacting Susan Stewart.