Worried for my son

[inthespiral]

My teenage DS best friend has been charged with a serious crime, and my son has been called as a witness for the prosecution. We don't know when it's going to court.

Today, my son has told me that he is now working with the alleged victim, in the job he has started this week. The victim doesn't yet seem to have made the connection between my son and his friend.

I feel sick at the the thought of how this could all go. If his friend is found guilty, my son will really struggle to work there, and in general. The whole thing has been bad for his MH. If he is found innocent, I don't know how that will affect him working with this other person as obviously they may struggle with that.

Also, they can't continue to work together without knowing the connection to each other. So how does he approach that?

Can anyone advise me if legally we should be telling anyone of this development?

What setting is he working in? Is there any chance he can move

There is another branch nearby, but I doubt it, he's literally just started.

Legally your sons doing nothing wrong? Unless there's more to the story and your son is more then just a witness?

There's no more to the story.

If he legally doesn't have to tell anyone, that's one thing.

Legalities aside, I'm concerned for him regarding the potential fallout from now being directly in the middle of the two people concerned. He's found the whole thing difficult as it is. And I don't know how to advise him on dealing with the fact the other person seemingly doesn't realise who he is.

He needs to tell his line manager or whoever is above him he is a witness to a court case and probably shouldn't be working with the victim?

Has he dumped his friend?

Has he spoken to the prosecuting lawyer? They may be able to advise.

We have no way of knowing if the workplace knows about the court case yet, so I don't see how he can do that. The incident took place long before the alleged victim worked there and they may not have chosen to disclose the details.

Yes, I think we need to speak to the PF's office at least.

This. He needs to inform his boss immediately.

Seconding @LIZS LIZS. He needs clear advice from the court, then to follow this. If he wants to transfer to a different branch he should also seek advice from the court, as depending on the nature of the crime the victim should not be identified without giving consent (English fails me this evening, I mean 'outed').

Ideally, I would want him to tell a manager and for them to manage this through the rota or whatever, but morally it feels wrong?

How can he do that if he doesn't know if the manager knows about the case? Surely it's not his place to tell the manager that information about a colleague?

Yes, this is what I'm getting at.

I will call the PF office tomorrow.

He needs to tell his Line Manager, he does not need to disclose the details of the case but he needs to make them aware of the potential conflict.

How does he do that without naming the other person though?

But he is a witness for the prosecution, so against his friend and on the ‘side’ of the victim?

I appreciate it is incredibly difficult for him.

Presumably the best friend is no longer best friend if your Ds is a witness for the prosecution?

I would talk to the lawyer.

I agree with you: I don’t think it is right for your Ds to break confidence by revealing info about the alleged victim to their manager.

Very tricky.

Your poor Ds. He is a victim too, because if all this.

He believes his friend is innocent. But something he has said in his statement has obviously been picked up by the prosecution. This happened over two years ago when he was 15, and he wasn't even there at the time of the incident.

I don’t think your ds should say a word about it at work until he has seeked some legal advice.
You have no idea if the victim wants everyone/work to know about that Court case. He should respect their privacy if that’s what the victim has decided to do,

He can not inform his boss. To do so risks breaching the privacy of the victim.

If he is a witness for the prosecution, he should raise it with his CPS contact for advice.

Another question:

If my son is a witness for the prosecution, will the colleague have been given his name as one?

He needs legal advice/to follow the advice of the court (and to follow it everywhere, both in real life and online). Contempt of Court is an issue:

www.gov.uk/contempt-of-court

You might be in contempt of court if you speak publicly or post on social media.

For example, you should not:

say whether you think a person is guilty or innocent
refer to someone’s previous convictions
name someone the judge has allowed to be anonymous, even if you did not know this
name victims, witnesses and offenders under 18
name sex crime victims
share any evidence or facts about a case that the judge has said cannot be made public