The UK criminal courts have been ‘recast’ as a ‘criminal-justice service’ where victims are reassured that due process will not be allowed to add to the complainants’ presumed distress and harm. This critical panel of lawyers openly question the new victim-friendly etiquette of police investigation, criminal prosecution and court procedures. The accuser is now assumed to be a victim before the jury have even deliberated that an offence has taken place or that the accused is guilty. While this plays well in the media, the defendant now faces an uphill battle to prove their innocence in the courtroom. Are we at risk of reinventing a criminal vengeance system akin to the medieval blood feud? Filmed at the Battle of Ideas Festival.
