Debate contribution: Victims and Witnesses of Crime Bill: Second Stage
Debate contribution by Mrs Naomi Long on .
- MLA
- Mrs Naomi Long
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 30 June 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Executive Committee Business
- Heading
- Victims and Witnesses of Crime Bill: Second Stage
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5653461
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I thank the Member for giving way. The added complication, of course, is that, with domestic and, in particular, sexual offences, the offender will often have groomed an entire community, not just the individual victim, to believe that they are above reproach, would not have conducted themselves in such a way and would be incapable of such an attack. Therefore, the value that you can attach to a character reference, even in a trial situation, is rather limited because it is not as though someone is going around the community advertising that they are a paedophile or rapist. You will not know that; they will keep that concealed. They will not be public about being involved in domestic abuse or violence. The whole purpose of how they operate is to create a facade of trust and confidence and then to abuse people behind it. Therefore, the idea that someone who knows you in public has any idea of what it is like to live with you in private or of how you behave in private is of really questionable evidential value.
181 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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