Defence witness

sassy_one

Hi all

Just looking for a quick piece of advice on behalf of someone who may well be appearing in Crown Court.

Can defence witnesses be anyone? Including family members?

And can I just clarify as I don't understand the process completely, is a defence witness different to a character statement?


Finally, on pleading not guilty at Crown, how fast are trial dates set roughly? Will it be within a few months or?

TonyMMM

A defence witness would be anyone called by the defence who had evidence to give that was relevant to the commission (or not) of the offence alleged.

A character witness is usually someone called (often after conviction - though not always) to say what a decent person the accused is, how out of character the alleged offence is etc. They would not usually be giving evidence as to whether the person is guilty or not.

Trial dates are now often set at the time of the plea hearing - how long the delay is depends on the complexity of the case and the workload of the court. Anything from a few weeks to a few months.