Tony Hatfield's Retired Ramblings

64. If a right is introduced for relatives of murder and manslaughter victims to make an oral statement to the judge, the defence might wish advance notice and the right to challenge this statement and to cross-examine the relative where the facts in the statement have a bearing on the sentence and are in dispute. The Government believes that the trial judge would be best placed to decide the rare cases in which this might be necessary to ensure the defendant’s right to a fair trial is not compromised. A victim’s advocate would also be in a good position to assist the relative to make their statement in a way which would avoid such circumstances arising. But we would welcome views on this point and on the practical implications in terms of advance notice.