Australian Capital Territory Current Acts Australian Capital Territory Current Acts(1) This section applies to a victim of an offence if the victim—
(a) is in a court or tribunal building for a proceeding for the offence; and
(b) has told a relevant justice agency that the victim may need protection from violence or harassment by any of the following people:
(i) an accused person for the offence;
(ii) a defence witness;
(iii) a family member of the accused or any person supporting the accused.
(2) The relevant justice agency must, as far as practicable, minimise the victim's exposure to the person while in the court or tribunal building.
Note The Evidence (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1991
, pts 4.2 and 4.3 set out special requirements that apply in particular proceedings to stated kinds of witnesses, including children and intellectually impaired witnesses, to minimise the exposure of a witness to an accused. Particularly, that Act
sets out—
• when a stated kind of witness may give evidence by audiovisual link in particular proceedings (see tables 43.1 to 43.4 and div 4.3.5); and
• that a court may order that an accused person be screened from a witness while the witness is giving evidence in a courtroom (see s 47); and
• that a witness in a relevant proceeding must not be examined personally by the accused person (see s 48); and
• that a court may order that the court be closed to the public while a witness is giving evidence (see s 50).
(3) In this section:
"exposure", of a victim to another person—
(a) includes—
(i) any form of physical contact between the victim and the other person; and
(ii) face-to-face communication between the victim and the other person; but
(b) does not include—
(i) oral communication by telephone; or
(ii) written communication, including electronic communication.
"relevant justice agency" means either of the following justice agencies:
(a) the director of public prosecutions;
(b) a court or tribunal, when acting in an administrative capacity.