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Child Witnesses' Access to Alternative Modes of Testifying in New Zealand

In 1990, New Zealand became the first common law country to introduce a comprehensive legislative package of reforms for child witnesses, including provision for children to testify via alternative modes, namely, admitting video-recorded forensic interviews as the child's evidence-in-chief and testifying at trial via closed-circuit television (CCTV) or screened from the accused. Since the 1990s, there has been no empirical research examining child witnesses' access to these modes in New Zealand courts. The purpose of this article is to fill that gap by examining children's access to alternative modes of giving evidence and determining how many applications are contested by the defence. Attention then turns to the issues surrounding the impact of alternative modes on perceptions of children's testimony, before considering whether New Zealand might introduce a statutory presumption in favour of CCTV and pre-recorded testimony in the interests of enhancing children's ability to provide best evidence and improving efficiency in trial processes.