Obtaining Statements After a Trial...Cheaply

Pretty_Polly_4

I'm not quite sure of how to explain this properly, but here goes.

I'm looking to obtain witness statements and/or the evidence given by the defence in a trial that took place last year.

To cut a long story short, a member of my family was the victim of a sexual offence. The case went to court but for various reasons, the family were not present whilst the defendant and his witness gave their version of events. As a result, my family member has never known all the things that were said. She feels the only way she will ever put her mind to rest is to find out.

Last year she contacted an agency that I believe she heard about through the court itself, called Selles orsomething similar. They could provide copies of the statements, but at a very high price. Unfortunately, we're not in a position to afford this..

So that brings me to the point of this post. Does anybody know of anywhere that could provide the same information at a reasonable price or even free? Obviously it would need to be somewhere that keep records for some time as the court case was almost a year ago.

Many many thanks.

Nicki

Although legal proceedings are tape recorded, the tapes are not usually transcribed unless they are requested by an interested party. Sometimes the lawyers involved in the case will ask for this to be done, and when this happens the cost of copies of the transcript is peanuts. If the costs quoted were high in this case, then it means that no transcript has been prepared, and that therefore if you want it you will have to pay the costs of the transcribing.

The only solutions I can think of are to contact any journalists who were present in court and ask if they would tell you from their notes what kind of evidence was given, or to contact the lawyer for the Crown Prosecution Service who handled the case, and ask him or her to check their notes. This won't be a full transcript but should be a fairly good summary of what was said.