Dealing with Children in Criminal Proceedings: A Personal Perspective

Key Topics

• Children as witnesses
• Children as defendants
• Pre-trial preparation
• Special measures
• The use of intermediaries
• The examination and cross-examination of children
• Sentencing
• Publicity and reporting

Abstract

John Elvidge KC will draw on his professional experience of serious cases involving children and young people to illustrate significant changes in practice, for example –

• 1997: R v H: a father and his 14 and 15 year old sons jointly charged with the murder of their mother in Huddersfield
  
• 2016: R v F & D: 13 and 14 year old girls charged with the murder of Angela Wrightson in her own home in Hartlepool
  
• 2016/17: Operation Shelter: a series of trials concerning the sexual exploitation of girls and young women in the West End of Newcastle

Biography

John Elvidge KC is Head of Chambers at Dere Street Barristers.

He is a graduate of Newcastle University (LLB) and was called to the Bar in 1988. For a number of years he conducted a common law practice but came to specialise in criminal work, taking Silk in 2010. He is a Master of the Bench at Gray’s Inn.

He is instructed to prosecute and defend in criminal cases throughout the North of England including homicide cases involving children as victims and defendants; he has also prosecuted and defended many cases involving sexual offences against children.

He was one of the four Lead Facilitators on the North Eastern Circuit who organised and delivered compulsory training to criminal barristers on the examination and cross-examination of vulnerable witnesses, including children.