NSW Witness Statement but No Evidence Provided?

[Jackson888]

Hi all,

I was just wondering if anyone could help with this question.

Can a witness talk about what he has seen in cctv footage if the actual cctv footage is not admitted to the court as evidence itself or will the witness information be excluded with the “best evidence rule"?

If he is able to make a statement about what he has seen in cctv, can someone be convicted on this alone without the actual footage to confirm?

Kind regards,

 

[Tim W]

Does the actual footage exist, even if not admitted/admissible?

Are you the witness, or the accused?

(or, is this the summer semester assignment question
in a subject such as "Criminal Procedure and Evidence"?)

 

[Jackson888]

Hi Tim

This is a weird case as it is about an incident that occurred a while ago. In this case I am actually the accused.

I can say that the footage did exist at one point of time as I have viewed it a while ago in a previous case and it should still exist. There were also errors of time in the footage.

In this newer case the prosecution only have a statement of another witness saying what he has seen in the footage.

Can the statement be excluded due to best evidence rule still? Or is it best to subpeona the the footage and attack the witness statement by showing times are wrong in the footage and he couldn't make a clear observation?

Kind regards,

 

[James Dylan]

The witness is allowed to say what they Witnessed. If that means they viewed some CCTV, then so be it. If the CCTV footage can’t be viewed in Court for some reason, it doesn’t change the witness’ account.

 

[Rod]

Why are there multiple cases with evidence from the same video footage?

Sounds like an abuse of process. Do you have a criminal lawyer?