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Intermediaries are communication specialists who work to facilitate communication in the criminal justice system. They assess vulnerable persons on their communication needs and make practical recommendations to police, judges and lawyers about how that person might be better accommodated.
In the UK, intermediaries have been working with vulnerable witnesses since 2004 but the legislation providing for the role does not cover suspects or defendants. In recent years, judges have stepped in to ‘fill the gap’ and allow some defendants in court to receive communication assistance from an intermediary. Nonetheless, in England and Wales there is no provision for intermediary assistance at the police station.
Northern Ireland has taken a different path. Since the rollout of its own intermediary scheme in 2013, it has covered both witnesses and suspects/defendants.
In this webinar, Jenny Humphries (a Registered Intermediary working within the Registered Intermediary Scheme in Northern Ireland) will explain the role, the challenges of assisting vulnerable individuals in the criminal justice system and will reflect on working with suspects and defendants.
Dr John Taggart (a former practising barrister and a lecturer in law at Queen’s University, Belfast) will provide some reflections on the legal provision of the role and some recent empirical data on the role’s operation in police custody in Northern Ireland. His PhD thesis focused on the role of the intermediary both England and Wales.
Speakers
Jenny Humphreys
Jenny graduated from Speech & Language Pathology in 2004, and after working for 12 years in the NHS, she was trained by the Department of Justice and qualified as a Registered Intermediary in 2016.
As a Speech and Language Therapist, she worked with adult and paediatric caseloads across a variety of settings including hospital, community, domiciliary and special schools. She specialised in the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of communication disorders, and laterally managed adults with swallowing disorders i.e., dysphagia. She has also worked in a private capacity with neurological and voice disorders.
As an Intermediary she has almost 8 years’ experience in assessing adults and children with communication difficulties within the Criminal Justice System, in Northern Ireland. The role includes facilitating communication at the investigative stages and at court to enable children and vulnerable adults’ (victims/witnesses, suspects/defendants) access to a fair trial and to assist them in giving evidence in a clear, complete, and coherent manner.
Dr John Taggart
John has a background in legal practice and was called to the Bar of Northern Ireland in 2013 and Lincoln’s Inn (England and Wales) in 2015. John completed his PhD at the London School of Economics (LSE) with his thesis focusing on the role of the intermediary in the criminal justice system.
John has worked closely with the Ministry of Justice (England and Wales) and the Department of Justice (Northern Ireland) on their respective witness intermediary models. Along with Professor Penny Cooper, John has recently advised the Australian Capital Territory Human Rights Commission as it expands its intermediary provision to the accused. He is also collaborating with the University of Limerick (Ireland) on mapping out the priorities for its inter-faculty ‘Professional Diploma in Intermediary Studies’.
John has published widely in the areas of procedural fairness for vulnerable individuals and the use of intermediaries in the legal process. His monograph (The Intermediary in the Criminal Justice System) will be published by Routledge in early 2025. John is the theme lead for the ‘Vulnerable Accused’ as part of the British Society of Criminology Vulnerability Research Network and also co-convenes the ‘Vulnerable Suspects and Defendants Work-in-Progress Forum’.