A HIGH COURT judge has ordered the State to put mechanisms in place and allocate sufficient resources to ensure a rape trial is completed expeditiously.
Justice Avason Quinlan-Williams made the order as she declared that the failure to ensure criminal cases involving child victims were expeditiously concluded was a breach of their right to protection of the law.
Before the judge was the constitutional claim of a a rape victim who sued the State for the inordinate delay in treating sexual offences.
Sunday Newsday featured the victim’s story on May 8, 2022. Her constitutional claim called on the authorities to put mechanisms in place and allocate sufficient resources to ensure criminal matters can be concluded expeditiously.
“The criminal justice system is in crisis and the State has failed to put mechanisms in place and allocate sufficient resources to ensure that criminal matters can be concluded expeditiously,” the claim said.
This, she said, has caused her psychological harm. Her evidence in the civil matter said she cannot effectively receive treatment for the trauma caused by the attack until the case is concluded. She also said her alleged attacker was out on bail and she fears for her own safety.
“The law does not afford victims of crime the right to be heard on case-management decisions. The law does not afford judicial officers to consider the rights of victims when making case-management decisions.
“The law does not provide victims of crime with any remedy for the failure of the courts to determine their cases expeditiously,” it said.
In her ruling, Quinlan-Williams also ordered the State to ensure the claimant receives psychological counselling while the case against her alleged rapist is pending and to provide half-yearly reports to the registrar on these arrangements.
The alleged victim will also receive $60,000 in compensation.
In her lawsuit, she complained of the delay by the court in dealing with her case since 2018, when the older man she accused of raping her and fathering her older child first appeared in court on the 2017 allegation.
She spoke of the trauma of attending court and facing her alleged attacker. She also continues to have suicidal thoughts. She also said she tried to overdose on pills three times during her pregnancy to “get rid of the baby.” She said she eventually kept the baby, telling herself the child was hers only.
Now an adult, she has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, major depression and generalised anxiety disorder caused by her alleged rape at age 16 and events after.
“The ongoing court proceedings has added to her existing PTSD symptoms by re-traumatising her in court,” the judge said of the evidence presented by the claimant.
Quinlan-Williams detailed the evidence and held although the damage to the claimant’s psychological integrity stemmed from her alleged attack at 16, it was “accentuated by the trauma from the ongoing court proceedings.”
She also said the evidence supported the claimant’s position of cancellations an
