assisting evidential presentation using sketch plans kerry marlow and martyn hilbourne 2010
TRANSCRIPT
Assisting evidential presentation using sketch
plans
Kerry Marlow and Martyn Hilbourne 2010
Background Legal perspective
‘According to Section 16(5) of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999, ‘quality’ means quality in terms of completeness, coherence and accuracy.’
Background Procedural guidance The use of sketch plans in the free narrative stage may be
helpful. The interviewee could be asked to draw the layout of the event and describe who was where, etc. This will help the interviewee reinstate the context and could
be a useful tool for the questioning phase of the interview to help focus the interviewee and structure topic selection. In addition, this is a useful investigative tool in ensuring that the R v Turnbull and Camelo rules are comprehensively covered.
(Achieving Best Evidence 2007)
Research These drawings can assist memory recall of information
and have ‘enormous investigative and evidential value’ (Heaton- Armstrong et al, 2006).
Children's narratives about their drawings, combined with spontaneous narratives while they are drawing have been associated with increases in children’s recall performance (Everson and Boat 2002)
Research Heaton- Armstrong et al (2006) identified three
types of ‘commentary’ which witnesses typically would employ when describing the drawing.
Asides e.g. ‘I was panicking and trying to keep my eyes shut at this point…’
Observations about the process of describing e.g. ‘I’m not too clear about this…’
Focus of attention e.g. ‘this was in bright light…’
Assisting witness presentation
Obtain an initial free narrative
Use a prescriptive key when asking the witness to draw the sketch
Investigative important questions
Key to Drawing
Buildings
vehicle
Other objects
Direction of travel (use different colour pens)
BV Best View
CV Closest view
People Person(s) to be identified using witness abbreviation
Instruct witness to use all of the piece of paper
Witness Perspectives
N=38 age range 16 to 60 years
Very usefu
luseful
Did you find it helpful that the interviewer asked you to draw a sketch plan 26 12
Did you find it helpful that the interviewer explained how to construct the sketch plan? 38 0
Overall do you think that using a sketch plan assisted you in remembering what had occurred? 26 12
Do you think that drawing a sketch plan would assist you in court to explain what had happened? 28 10
Did the interviewer work with your sketch plan to explain what had happened 19 19
Presentation of the evidence
Evidential presentation
Practical issues
Technical considerations
