The Attorney General yesterday promised a raft of measures to modernise Bermuda’s criminal justice system including legislation to protect vulnerable victims and witnesses.

Senator Philip Perinchief told a conference that a change in the law was needed to eradicate what he described as an “unfortunate culture” in Bermuda of protecting the accused, as opposed to those affected by crime.

He was backed by Chief Justice Richard Ground — the Island’s top judge — who told the audience of criminal justice professionals at Elbow Beach Hotel that the Island had already made progress in better recognising and respecting the needs of victims.

“But we still need to be continually thinking about how we can further modernise the law of evidence and procedure so as to achieve fairness for all,” added Mr. Justice Ground.

“Achieving fairness means achieving the right balance between the rights of the accused and the rights of the victim. This calls for a critical examination of the way we do business.”

The two-day conference is named No Witness, No Justice after a witness protection programme implemented in the UK four years ago which has dramatically reduced the number of trials collapsing there.

Mr. Justice Ground said: “I am sure that we have a lot to learn from their experience — and, I suspect, from their mistakes.”

He said careful thought was needed as to whether the current system in Bermuda of requiring witnesses to give oral evidence at preliminary inquiries and then again at trial needed to change. Requiring children and victims of sexual or violent crime to give their evidence twice often amounted, he claimed, to “little more than institutionalised intimidation”.

The Chief Justice also called for money to be pumped into improving equipment and facilities. “A witness care unit needs an office and personnel,” he said.

“Vulnerable witnesses can’t give evidence by video link if there is no video link. Intimidated witnesses are not going to be reassured by shabby courtrooms with little or no security.”

Several high profile murders on the Island have led to calls for better protection for witnesses and victims. Detectives recently had to offer a $50,000 reward for information on the unsolved slaying of 18-year-old Jason Lightbourne — shot dead on Ord Road in Paget last July — due to witnesses’ reluctance to talk.

Marsha Jones, whose 20-year-old son Shaundae was gunned down in Dockyard three months after he gave evidence in relation to a fatal stabbing in 2003 has made repeated calls for a witness protection programme.

Police have also been criticised for asking victims of violent crime to pick out their assailants from line-ups in full view of those taking part.

Sen. Perinchief said yesterday that the unwillingness of victims and witnesses to participate in criminal trials had “emerged as the focus and deciding factor in respect of whether justice is achievable; for if there is no witness, then of course there is no justice”.

He told the audience: “A trial can only be truly characterised as fair where the rights of both the accused and the victim and/or the witnesses are clearly embodied in a legislative and administrative framework which has been carefully and thoughtfully created to address the human and cultural factors that have contributed to successful and even unsuccessful criminal prosecutions.”

Conference-goers, including local Police, judges and prosecutors, watched a specially-filmed video of Lord Goldsmith, the Attorney General for England and Wales, talking about the success of the UK scheme. He explained that it included offering witnesses help with childcare or transport to court, as well as protection from intimidation, to ensure they could give their evidence. “We do all that we can to support them and take further action if intimidation occurs,” he said.

Sen. Perinchief said the legislation to afford better protection to vulnerable witnesses would have a particular emphasis on child abuse cases.

He listed four other planned initiatives aimed at improving the Island’s criminal justice system: a public defender system to reduce the backlog of criminal cases; a possible restoring of the Crown’s right to appeal acquittals based on a “no case to answer” ruling; setting up legal aid clinics in the eastern and western parishes; and establishing a mental health court.

“These and other modern initiatives are afoot in this Ministry, I can assure you,” said Sen. Perinchief.

The conference will hear from him again today plus Director of Public Prosecutions Vinette Graham-Allen.