2023-24 Criminal Law CPD Series:

Vulnerable witness advocacy

Professional skills
Ethics & professional responsibility
CPD Points: 1.5

About

This seminar will discuss the definition of a vulnerable witness in the Criminal Procedure Act 1986 (NSW) and the provisions in the Act that allow for the use of pre-recorded evidence and provide for other alternative means of giving evidence. The seminar will particularly consider the way a complainant’s evidence is adduced in the Child Sexual Assault Program operating in some NSW courts. There will also be some discussion of Evidence Act 1995 (NSW) provisions that may be relevant to the evidence of a vulnerable witness. Finally, the seminar will cover relevant provisions of the Equality before the Law Bench Book and some findings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Presenter

Philip Hogan is a Deputy Senior Crown Prosecutor with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (NSW) (‘ODPP’). He was appointed to this office in 2018, having served as a Crown Prosecutor since 2010. Before that, Philip spent 13 years at the NSW Bar, practising from Samuel Griffiths Chambers. He appears regularly in serious criminal proceedings in the Supreme Court of NSW and the District Court of NSW.