how will they prove it?

Departed

I heard a woman on radio who said she was robbed of her purse in a supermarket. There is cctv of her being followed but none of the actual theft. How will the garda prosecute this, if they do ?

How will it be proved they were actually following her. What would happen if an innocent person was walking behind someone in a supermarket who was subsequently robbed.

Farcear

Statement from the victim.

Victim picking out the accused from a line-up at the Garda station.

Eyewitness evidence -- other shoppers and staff.

The circumstantial CCTV evidence.

A confession from the accused.

Finding the purse in the possession of the accused.

Tracing the use of the victim's stolen credit / debit cards to the accused.

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Anything can be evidence once it proves "beyond reasonable doubt" that the accused was guilty.

Departed

Farcear wrote: »

Victim picking out the accused from a line-up at the Garda station.

victim only knows who was following her from ccctv

Eyewitness evidence -- other shoppers and staff.

quite possible

The circumstantial CCTV evidence.

if you were walking behind someone who was robbed but you did not do it how would you feel about that?

A confession from the accused.

maybe

Finding the purse in the possession of the accused.

they reckon the purse is long gone

Tracing the use of the victim's stolen credit / debit cards to the accused.

if the accused use them

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Anything can be evidence once it proves "beyond reasonable doubt" that the accused was guilty.

does walking behind someone reasonably prove you were following them

Farcear

To deal with the issue of the CCTV footage.

CCTV evidence in this case is "circumstantial evidence".

Courts can convict on circumstantial evidence alone -- provided it proves the accused committed the crime "beyond reasonable doubt".

Obviously, that all goes to the strength of the evidence.

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Departed wrote: »

does walking behind someone reasonably prove you were following them

Remember, that's not the issue here.

It does nothing for the Prosecution to prove that the accused was following the victim.

The Prosecution need to prove that the accused committed the theft.