One of the country's most senior judges has called for a technological overhaul of criminal trials in Scotland.
Lord Carloway, the Lord Justice Clerk and second senior judge of the Supreme Courts of Scotland, said the format of criminal trials, which remains largely unchanged since Victorian times, wasted time and money and might even obstruct justice.
Lord Carloway argued there was no need for witnesses to give evidence live in court. Statements that were recorded on smartphones or iPads as soon as possible after a crime had been committed should be admissible in court. Currently, he fears there is a danger the delay before a case comes to court risks witnesses struggling to remember what they saw.
"The idea that everybody comes together at the one place at the one time for a trial of the evidence is essentially borne out of the conditions that existed in the 19th century and before," Lord Carloway said. "What is required is not mere tinkering with a Victorian system of proof." What is needed, he said, is "clear-sky thinking on how best to prove or disprove facts efficiently, given advances in technology since the web arrived."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article