Child advocate SheelaghCooper has called for radical changes in the handling of sexual and physical abuse cases involving youngsters.

Ms Cooper has long expressed frustration about the way such cases are handled with many being thrown out.

She said: ?The legislation which prevents disclosure of the identity of the accused in sexual offences should be repealed.

?This is the only category of offence for which such protection exists. A person accused of murder is not protected and names are published through the trial.

?Unless all accused persons are similarly treated we see no reason why (with the consent of the victim) this category of accused persons should be singled out for protection.?

She said the option of testifying from behind a screen or via closed-circuit video in another room should be routinely provided to all child complainants of sexual or physical abuse.

Videotaped statements from children should be admissible, and encouraged, for court proceedings which children often find intimidating, she said.

?Only a trained professional should interview children.

?If possible, the child should not be required to tell his/her story more than once and to more than one person in preparation for the criminal proceedings.?

Her group also wants an exception to the hearsay practice to allow the admissibility of testimony by those who have received sexual abuse disclosures from children.

She said: ?In Canada and the UK if a child comes home and says someone did something to them and tells the parent then the parents testimony is allowed in court, telling what the child felt like, what the child said.

?In Bermuda that is still considered hearsay. It?s not allowed.?

The need for speedy justice was even more necessary for trials involving child witnesses said Ms Cooper who recommended a wait of no longer than six months.

Another recommendation is that child witnesses should be permitted to have a neutral person or non-offending parent to accompany them to the witness stand and stay with them during their testimony.

?When children are testifying, the court should be closed in all cases except for the Press and victim support,? said Ms Cooper.

Lawyers should be prohibited from conducting lengthy and accusatory cross-examination of child witnesses she believes.

?Calling a child a liar is not acceptable.?

Acting Director of Public Prosecutions Kulandra Ratneser agreed with this and said in some jurisdictions it was not acceptable.

He told : ?You can?t call a witness a liar. You can only say they are incorrect. You don?t imply dishonesty because they are under oath.?

Ms Cooper said a defence lawyer had called a child a liar three times in a recent sexual abuse case which ended with no conviction.

?There?s a whole body of literature on vulnerable witnesses as they call them. They are not just children. Some are retired people or with mental challenges.

?It?s believed they deserve special treatment by the courts, if for no other reason than they if you badger a vulnerable witness you are not going to get the truth. They can be brow-beaten.?

She also believes there should be a relaxation in the requirement for corroboration of child testimony so that in the absence of medical or other corroborating evidence, the judge can hear a child?s evidence and assess its credibility without corroboration.

Cases of serious sexual or physical molestation or assault on children should always be referred to Supreme Court for sentencing, she believes.

?There needs to be an increased recognition by the prosecution and the judiciary of the seriousness of these offences and the length of time that is required for a convicted offender to be treated successfully within the prison system.

?Effective treatment in serious cases requires at least two years, which means a sentence of six years (since inmates are eligible for parole after one-third of their sentence).

She said magistrates needed training in handling child abuse cases.

?The Canadian judicial institution have a tremendous programme for magistrates and judges specifically geared to the hearing of child cases.

?They are available to come and do training here in Bermuda. That?s one option, there are many, many others.?

She said the DPP had offered support by making sure his staff were trained.

Ms Cooper also urged custody, access and child support cases to be referred to mandatory mediation rather than go through costly and divisive court cases.

At present the Centre for Community and Family Mediation, which is an offshoot of the Coalition for Coalition for the Protection of Children, gets the cases after the courts have been tried.

Established in 1997 The Centre for Community and Family mediation is a non-profit organisation which charges $100 an hour for its services, while lawyers will charge several times that said Ms Cooper, in a system which creates winners and losers.

?Now we are receiving enormous numbers of referrals.

?Last year alone we received 176 referrals from Magistrates? Court and 82 percent came up with a mutually satisfying agreement, meaning they did not return to the court?.

She said most of these were from unmarried mothers in child support, visiting and custody cases.

?These people take each other to court, file an action against the other party, taking up an enormous amount of the court?s time.

?I can?t even begin to imagine what it costs the public. What I would like to see happen is that these people are referred to mediation before they are allowed to proceed in Magistrates? Court.

?This happens in Canada and the UK a lot. It eliminates these people from the court system. ?What?s happening now is they are going to court which is sending them after the fact to me.

?It?s good that we can resolve it but the point is we can eliminate the court entirely by saying you are going to have to come here first.?

Divorce issues such as finance and custody in the Supreme Court would also benefit from mediation said Ms Cooper.

?In terms of cutting down the number of cases and making the system more effective I think it?s the way to go.?

Fighting out issues in the courts also traumatises children caught in the middle said Ms Cooper.

?Engaging people in mediation transforms them in the sense that they find a different way of communicating.

?It increases the likelihood of next time that they run into difficulty they will have the skills to discuss it and negotiate it rather than running back to Magistrates? Court and wasting the court?s time.

?The likelihood of reaching a conclusion which both parties are happy with is enormous. ?Mediation vastly reduces the trauma to the children.

?Instead of inciting the two people to be further and further apart as lawyers tend to do in the adversarial process all the impetus is towards finding a mutually satisfying conclusion.?

She said such outcomes reduced stress across the community. Mediation could help heal gang rifts which blight the nation said Ms Cooper. Instead too many cases of violence were dealt with by fines which did nothing to reduce the likelihood of it happening again.

?I really believe if those disputing people were referred to mediation. This gang thing has gone on and on.

?There?s no attempt being made to get to the bottom of it and mediate between the parties. Mediation has been incredibly successful elsewhere between the gangs.

?There is plenty of evidence the approach could work with youngsters with the success of the Centre?s mediation programmes which run throughout the school system.

?I train children as young as ten to be mediators. They mediate their own classmates. Two ten-year-olds will co-mediate the dispute.

?It is possible. What I want to do is create a culture which transforms the way we deal with conflict. Conflict is part of life how you manage it makes the difference.?

But help was needed for those who had left the school system said Ms Cooper who had done similar work in Canada.

A few years ago she helped mediate a schoolgirl who had stabbed another and helped take the sting out of a long-running feud to the point where the pair could talk to each other.

?It?s such a powerful tool and so transforming that we could make more use of it.?