Interfering with a witness is a criminal offence, and treated seriously by the court system. There is no maximum sentence for this offence, as each case is taken on its own, consider a form of contempt of court.
Interfering with a witness can mean a few things, but generally means intimidation tactics used to prevent a witness giving evidence, or to augment what they say in some way (i.e. encouraging them to tell a lie).
What acts are considered ‘interfering’?
- Physically hurting a witness or possible witness
- Abuse
- Bribing
- Intercepting a summons or subpoena being delivered to witness
- Punishments administered after a witness has given evidence
- To get a witness to say they were lying in court (perjor themselves)
- Prejudicing a case by disparaging a witness
- Arresting a witness on the way to court or during court to give evidence or prevent a witness summoned from attending court
- To remove a person from office because they gave evidence
- A landlord to evict a tenant because the tenant gave evidence against the landlord
How interfering with a witness is prosecuted
It must be proved that the interferer knew that the person was a witness or a possible witness, whether the interfering had the desired effect or not.
Intent to interfere
There are two views on this.
The first is that the alleged interferer had the intention of deterring a witness from giving evidence, or intended to influence the way the witness gave evidence. Being reckless as to the outcome of our actions may not be enough to satisfy this intent.
The second is that it doesn’t matter if the alleged interferer intended to pervert the course of justice, if their conduct was likely to interfere.