At about 6:20pm police officers attended RB’s home for unrelated matters. They noticed that the house was secure. They knocked on the front door but no one answered. A short time later, the older child ran to the door crying and screaming. The child tried unsuccessfully to open the door. The police broke a window and climbed into the house as they were concerned for the safety of the child. They found the older child crying hysterically and sweating profusely. The temperature outside was about 30 degrees but it was hotter inside the house. The police found the younger child crying and sweating in her cot.
RB was later located at the shops some kilometres from the home. He spoke poor English but later gave an interview with police with the assistance of an interpreter.
The matter came on for hearing in June 2012. The prosecutor called an expert witness from the ACT ‘Child at Risk Health Unit’. That witness gave evidence to the effect that the children were so young that they were incapable of caring for themselves and that because they were left unattended, the risks they had faced were considerable. These ranged from heat exhaustion, injury from accident to possible physiological damage that would be hard to quantify.
Evidence of RB’s interview with police was admitted over objection. RB told the police that he had left the children alone to go to the shops for a short period of time to buy food.
Ultimately, the court found the charges proved, accepting the expert witness’s opinion that the children had been in ‘a perilous position’. RB was convicted and placed on a good behaviour order.
WITNESS ASSISTANCE SERVICE
The Witness Assistance Service has continued to provide a range of services to complainants in sexual offences and Family Violence; victims suffering significant trauma; and family members where a death has occurred as a result of crime.The service also continued to provide training to, and receive training from, the AFP, DVCS, Victim Support ACT and the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre. The service has also provided in-house training to legal and administrative staff within the office with particular emphasis on working with children, and complainants of family violence and sexual assault. They also provided training to the new members of the Victim of Crime Volunteer Program.
The Witness Assistants were involved in the evaluation (conducted by the Australian Institute of Criminology) of the Sexual Assault Reform Program (SARP) reforms. This included being interviewed in relation to the experience of a Witness Assistant pre and posts the SARP reforms, and also assisting in arranging victims to be interviewed in relation to their experience in the criminal justice system.
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ANNUAL REPORT 2011-12 DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS 23
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