Family and Friends Forum

Newlady

Member since
April 2021

644 posts

Posted Thu September 28, 2023 8:52amReport post

https://www.justice-ni.gov.uk/news/sexual-offences-changes-privacy-and-anonymity-protections-victims-and-suspects. This seems like good news in ni , but I'm wondering if it will stop vigilantantes . Hope so .

edel2020

Member since
March 2022

373 posts

Posted Thu September 28, 2023 10:39amReport post

I think it's misleading, because it only protects the suspect up to when they are charged. So it would cover people like Russell Brand, but not most of our people, who are mostly named in the press only when they go to court.

Also, it excludes the public from the courtroom, but not journalists, so the details will still be available to the public, but only through a filter of the press. It would be better if the public could hear for themselves what the judge said, rather than have it misrepresented by the media. Very often the defence will spend a long time explaining the background to these cases, such as why the person did it, what mental health issues they were suffering from at the time etc.

But the journalists usually don't mention that part, they just report the details of the offence, call the person the P word and give the public a distorted version of what actually happened. It could end up making things worse, because the truth about why men commit these offences will be hidden from the public and only the media stereotypes will remain.

Daffodil

Member since
March 2022

965 posts

Posted Thu September 28, 2023 11:28pmReport post

Post deleted


Edited Tue October 24, 2023 9:12am

Kt

Member since
January 2023

180 posts

Posted Fri September 29, 2023 8:11amReport post

Good morning ladies, I've been trying to Google some new rules that I've heard about courts lately but none seem to be updated amd can't click on the link, when you say public can't attend courts now, does that mean all public including us as families.

Thank you

Edited Fri September 29, 2023 1:21pm