I've been called as a witness but I don't want to go

[horsehound]

A couple of months ago I reported an incident to the police. A man was at a neighbours house with a sledgehammer, threatening to kill them etc. I called the police because I was worried for people's safety, there were a lot of elderly people having to walk past to get home from the shop.

The police arrived and arrested the man. I gave a statement but was told I would probably hear nothing more. Today I received a notice to attend court.
I was the only person to ring the police and I'm fairly certain I'm the main witness.
I live in a rough area, can't wait to move but we are stuck here. I don't want to go to court and give evidence. Not least because I am worried about the repercussions.
Apart from that the court is miles away, I have 3 kids with varying special needs (although they are all school age), and they've given me dates over a 10 day period where I will be expected to drop everything with less than 24 hours notice. I also have a job to consider.

I really don't want to do this. The police officer who took my statement said if I didn't want to attend as a witness that I didn't need to but the letter I've received today doesn't read that way.

How do I go about this? Do I withdraw my statement or contact the person who sent the letter and tell them I won't be attending?

Thanks for reading, any advice greatly appreciated.

You can give evidence from behind a screen if you are worried about the possibility of being recognised.
I have seen this technique used in a couple of cases I've sat on the jury for.

No I'm not. But I don't understand the various abbreviations you have used. Can you explain them please?

Most of the posters replying, I presume.

I'd have thought the cps deal with it.

Sorry, Amateurdad, are you asking me about abbreviations?

Quite a rude assumption that it's all lay people giving advice. Some of us have a lot of knowledge how the system works

don't worry Redglitter AD is very down on 'lay people' tonight on another thread too.

This particular 'criminal lawyer' has at least been consistant in their first foray into mumsnet.

I would hate to think it was a gentleman coming to tell us womenfolk how we can't possibly be relevant professionals, or that at best we merely may have a 'lay person's' view.

'consistent'

Lol perish the thought us mere women might be speaking from experience not just making it up as we go along

Don't be silly. The best lawyers I know are women. I didn't mean to offend though - sorry.

Re-igniting my zombie thread!

Just been reading through it all again as I have had a third set of dates through the post today...

So to update: the original trial dates came and went and I never got the call. In fact I didn't hear anything from anyone for months so I assumed the defendant changed his plea and I was no longer needed. I was pissed off at having waited in every day for a phone call, anxiety going through the roof etc... I should have called them to check what was happening probably but we were having issues with ds2, my aging Grandad had a fall and I ended up putting it to one side.

March this year, completely out of the blue I got the same standardised letter informing me of new dates - across the Easter hols, and including all 3 of the kids birthdays. So I phoned up the witness care unit to ask what was going on. I explained I had already given them two weeks where I re-arranged my life etc. Basically that I was by this point extremely annoyed by the lack of communication and that I wasn't prepared to put everything on hold again. Witness Care told me they would forward on my complaint and again, I heard nothing.

This morning I got a third letter with one week's notice for dates set next week! Having spoken to witness care I got a feeble apology for not having heard from whoever it was they passed my comments on to. It was also confirmed that the case could potentially be kicked back again!

Is there a time limit on how long this can drag on for? I am going to make a formal complaint about the complete lack of communication. I'm hugely concerned about actually being called to give evidence - it has been way more than a year since the original incident and I barely remember what happened. Yes I will get to read my statement through but I can't really see how I'm going to be of any benefit being cross-examined so long after it all happened.

Thank you if you've managed to read this far - I don't really know what anyone can say to help me/advise me but it's good to just dump it out of my brain!

Oh, and to add to the drama - my Grandad died this weekend and I am waiting to find out when the funeral will be - knowing my luck it will be the day I am required in court. I have also finally got an appointment with paediatrics for ds2 and that might also clash with the trial - I really don't want to have to miss that as it's for an ASD assessment, the type of appointment that could take months to come around again :/

Poor you what a nightmare

Thanks Random - I just hope I can go to the funeral without all of this hanging over my head :/