CCTV shows stills to jury in murder trial
A court presentation system that enables counsel, witnesses and judges to highlight stills of CCTV footage is fast gaining currency in the Crown Court, with a murder case the latest to benefit.In a recent case at Bristol Crown Court involving a murder and serious assault outside a nightclub in Wiltshire, Oyez Legal Technologies integrated the footage into its Trial Pro presentation system so stills could be shown on demand on 17 screens located in the court.Using touch-sensitive monitors, it was possible for those in the courtroom to 'write' on the screens to highlight events or persons and to enlarge portions of the screen to enhance fine detail.Jan France, head of presentation services at Oyez, said the system can be 'extremely useful in document intensive trials', when paper-based information is downloaded.Mr France said that, previously, displaying images in court would have involved the lengthy process of rewinding and forwarding VHS video tapes to find a particular image.Trial Pro has been used in a number of high-profile cases for the Serious Fraud Office including the Maxwell trial, where it was applied to documents rather than CCTV footage.
SFO case controller Stephen Myers said: 'The use of technology and services in our case preparation, and the subsequent presentation in court saved considerable time and money.'In the Bristol case, the defendants were found guilty of manslaughter, GBH and ABH, and will be sentenced in the coming weeks.Earlier this year, Oyez won the Society for Computers and Law IT award for its virtual reality software in the Bloody Sunday enquiry.Andrew Towler
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