KEY POINTS:
Louise Nicholas supports abolishing pre-trial depositions hearings in order to save victims the trauma of giving evidence twice.
Mrs Nicholas wrote to the Herald yesterday urging the National Party to "step up" and stop opposing the Criminal Procedure Bill, which would allow the change.
She said she supported
Lesley Elliott, mother of murdered Dunedin woman Sophie Elliott, who found giving evidence at a depositions hearing last week "traumatic" and the thought of doing it again at trial "hideous".
Mrs Nicholas said depositions hearings failed in their objective to decide if there was "a case to answer" before committing an accused to trial.
"Deposition hearings are a waste of time and taxpayers' money simply because the majority [unless they are high profile cases] are heard by Justices of the Peace and 99.9 per cent of the time they send it on to trial anyway," she said.
"Deposition hearings do nothing but allow the defence an opportunity to suss out the prosecution witnesses prior to trial so that they can drag up as much dirt on them as possible in order to try and discredit them at trial."
The bill has stalled in Parliament for over a year because the Labour Government cannot get a majority to pass it.
National supports all the other parts of the bill except for the clause abolishing depositions hearings, but has indicated it is ready to negotiate.
"The justice system needs to become fairer for all," Mrs Nicholas said. "It is time to move out of our draconian laws and move into the 21st century."
Mrs Nicholas said she had twice appeared at depositions hearings in relation to her allegations of sexual offences and corruption by police.
The first was in 1993, following her original sexual violation allegations against a Murupara police officer.
The victims of sex offences are usually protected from giving evidence at depositions, but Mrs Nicholas said she did so at the behest of the investigating officer, Detective Inspector John Dewar.
Mrs Nicholas said the next appearance was a 2006 hearing in relation to Dewar's charges of attempting to obstruct or defeat the course of justice.
She said Dewar's lawyers won an argument to have her there "and I was on the stand for about a day and at the time pregnant with Luke".
Mrs Nicholas also objected to comments supporting the legal value of depositions from the Criminal Bar Association and John Haigh, QC (who successfully defended former police assistant commissioner Clint Rickards against her allegations of rape).
The Criminal Bar Association says depositions hearings act as a sounding board before the trial where deficiencies in the prosecution case can be exposed or examined, saving time at trial and possibly preventing miscarriages of justice.
