For years a variety of complaints has been heard from victims of crime and their advocates: that gardai pay no attention to them after they have gathered initial evidence; that they are ignored in the prosecution process and have no input into it; that they are left alone during the trial of the perpetrator; and that, if and when the perpetrator is convicted and sentenced, he (most perpetrators are male) may be released without victims receiving any warning.
Some of these complaints have been addressed by Victim Support and other voluntary agencies dealing with victims, such as rape crisis centres. But their response has been, of necessity, fragmented and unco-ordinated.
This charter seeks to address these concerns and ensure a systematic response. It spells out the obligations of agents of the State to the victim from the moment a crime is reported until the perpetrator is released. It imposes a specific obligation on gardai to give equal priority to the investigation of all crime, irrespective of the victim's gender, race, sexual orientation or membership of a minority group. This rectifies an omission in the Equal Status Bill, which did not include the Garda Siochana as one of the bodies bound by its provisions.
The undertakings from the Garda include prompt response to a call; providing information on the investigation, with the names and phone numbers of the investigating gardai; informing victims and their families about impending offender releases; and offering support services to victims of domestic violence and special attention to those with specific linguistic, physical or welfare needs. A failure to do so can be reported to the Garda Victim Liaison Officer in the Community Relations Section of the Garda in Harcourt Square, Dublin, or to a local superintendent.
Similar undertakings have been given by other agencies, such as the prison and probation services, with similar provision for reporting failures. A prisons Victim Liaison Officer is to be appointed to the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform.
In court, a victim can call on the services of the court victim/witness service. New and refurbished courts will have accommodation and facilities for the use of victims and their families.
However, the most dramatic innovation introduced by the charter is that providing for a review of a decision not to prosecute by the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, at the request of a victim. If the DPP receives such a request, he may refer the file to someone in his office who has not previously dealt with it. This person will review the entire contents of the file and make a fresh decision on whether or not to prosecute.
This will not meet the demands of some victims for an explanation of the initial decision or, indeed, the second decision if it upholds the first. Successive court rulings have upheld the practice of the DPP not to discuss his decisions, primarily on the basis of natural justice. If he feels that the evidence does not justify a prosecution, discussing that evidence in public removes the presumption of innocence to which everyone is entitled.
Another area where victims and their relatives have often been distressed is in coroners' courts. The charter points out that it is not the function of a coroner to establish criminal or civil liability, but to establish the facts surrounding a sudden, violent or unnatural death.
In this context, the coroners' service is committed to giving full information to the family of a deceased person about a post-mortem, ensuring that the body is released for burial as quickly as possible and conducting the inquest in a sympathetic manner.