| No. and year of law | Short title | Extent of repeal or amendment |
subsection: “(1) Whenever criminal proceedings are pending before any court and it appears to such court that it would expose any witness under the biological or mental age of eighteen years to undue mental stress or suffering if he or she testifies at such proceedings, the court may, subject to subsection (4), appoint a competent person as an intermediary in order to enable such witness to give his or her evidence through that intermediary.”; and (b) the addition after subsection (6) of the following subsections:“(7) The court shall provide reasons for refusing any application or request by the public prosecutor for the appointment of an intermediary in respect of child complainants below the age of 14 years, immediately upon refusal and such reasons shall be entered into the record of the proceedings.”; “(8) An intermediary referred to in subsection (1) shall be summoned to appear in court on a specified date and at a specified place and time to act as an intermediary.”; and “(9) If, at the commencement of or at any stage before the completion of the proceedings concerned, an intermediary appointed by the court— (a) is for any reason absent;(b) becomes unable to act as an intermediary in the opinion of the court; or(c) dies,the court may, in the interests of justice and after due consideration of the arguments put forward by the accused person and the prosecutor— (i) postpone the proceedings in order to obtain the intermediary's presence;(ii) summons the intermediary to appear before the court to advance reasons for being absent;(iii) direct that the appointment of the intermediary be revoked and appoint another intermediary; or(iv) direct that the appointment of the intermediary be revoked and that the proceedings continue in the absence of an intermediary. |
