Giving A Witness Statement to the Gardaí

Stroke Politics

About a fortnight ago, I witnessed an assault outside my estate, and I rang the guards to report the incident. They subsequently rang me back and told me that they needed to take a full statement from me later, as the assault had been reported to them by the victim.

I received a message last night to contact the local garda statement for them to take a statement. I am just wondering how long the whole process should take, and do I need to bring anything with me? The garda investigating the case in on nights this week, and I have to go in to him after 9pm. I was thinking of preparing my own statement on a memory stick, so that he could copy ii into his own PC/Laptop, but would this ber allowed?

username123

Stroke Politics wrote: »

I was thinking of preparing my own statement on a memory stick, so that he could copy ii into his own PC/Laptop, but would this ber allowed?

Nope - I gave one a few years ago and I had to physically give it, in my own words, with the Guard handwriting it.

nuckeythompson

it has to be signed in the presence of a garda, you can give it in any format but they will give you some guff about it must be done in the station. BS
print it off and sign it in front of a garda at the station or have him call to you to collect it. He will also sign it and it will have to be given in duplicate

martingriff

Stroke Politics wrote: »

About a fortnight ago, I witnessed an assault outside my estate, and I rang the guards to report the incident. They subsequently rang me back and told me that they needed to take a full statement from me later, as the assault had been reported to them by the victim.

I received a message last night to contact the local garda statement for them to take a statement. I am just wondering how long the whole process should take, and do I need to bring anything with me? The garda investigating the case in on nights this week, and I have to go in to him after 9pm. I was thinking of preparing my own statement on a memory stick, so that he could copy ii into his own PC/Laptop, but would this ber allowed?

As has been said I say this is not allowed as how would they know it is your words of what you had seen and not someone who wrote it up for you and presurised you into saying it. Not talking about your case but in general

nuckeythompson

as long as its signed in front of the gaurd its fine, you can also do it through your solicitor but the garda dont like that.
You could always ask the guard to come to your house. The reason gardai are told to do it themselves is to ask questions and to use garda language. They are also required to understand the language its written in for court purposes, hence garda language

username123

What on earth is Garda Language?

nuckeythompson

in relation to
vehikill etc. just watch crimeline and you will see

Santa Cruz

nuckeythompson wrote: »

as long as its signed in front of the gaurd its fine, you can also do it through your solicitor but the garda dont like that.
You could always ask the guard to come to your house. The reason gardai are told to do it themselves is to ask questions and to use garda language. They are also required to understand the language its written in for court purposes, hence garda language

Rubbish. The reason that the Garda wants to write it out is that he/she can ask questions as you go along to clarify different points such as time, location, where you were standing, distance from the incident, what you saw and heard. It dosent have to be done at a station

nuckeythompson

It does NOT have to be done with a garda, they would prefer it alright as you stated above. Its not required by law so to answer the OP yes he can type it as long as its signed by him in the presence of a garda.
GS ask you to come to a station in order to get a statement they will find easier to use in a court. its NOT a legal requirment though. Id say OP will find it very difficult to get an email address from a garda station as they are terrified of a thread someone else can use against them.

eoinkildare

As stated in this thread the reason Gardai seek to write the statement themselves is so that they have the opportunity to ask clarification questions. It is not so that it can be in Garda speak and in fact, the statement should be in your own words but will probably require a lot more detail than you realise about some aspects of the incident which you may not feel to be important.
It may not be a legal requirement but why argue about such a thing?
And yes, of course the Garda could come to your house if your house is a suitable place to take such a statement.

Eoin

sawdoubters

you should have grabbed your phone and videoed it

the statement will only take ten minutes

nuckeythompson

not an arguement , just an answer to the OP

T

unattendedbag

sawdoubters wrote: »

you should have grabbed your phone and videoed it

the statement will only take ten minutes

And then have the phone seized as evidence and not returned until the end of proceedings, which could take several years.

Gertrude2

I've given statements twice in the last couple of years. For one the Garda came to my house, for the other I went to the station. One was very serious, the other not really. On both occasions the Garda had to ask me about details I hadn't thought to include or didn't think of at all until prompted.

It's not stressful. It would be useful if you write down everything you remember at this stage, before you sit down to do the actual statement. Bring these notes with you.

I was amazed at how crappy a witness I was.

nuckeythompson

Gertrude2 wrote: »

I've given statements twice in the last couple of years. For one the Garda came to my house, for the other I went to the station. One was very serious, the other not really. On both occasions the Garda had to ask me about details I hadn't thought to include or didn't think of at all until prompted.

It's not stressful. It would be useful if you write down everything you remember at this stage, before you sit down to do the actual statement. Bring these notes with you.

I was amazed at how crappy a witness I was.

prompt a witness

Peregrinus

After the guard has heard your story, he'll almost certainly have follow-up questions, requests for clarification, requests for further detail, etc. ("Would you recognise the man if you saw him again? Did you see anyone else who might have witnessed the incident? Can you say why you think this happened at the time you say it did?" Etc, etc.) Nearly always, this will result in more material that needs to be included in your statement, so at the end of the exercise a comprehensive witness statement will be prepared, incorporating in a coherent way all the relevant stuff from your first account (irrelevant stuff may be dropped) plus any relevant stuff that has emerged from the questions put to you by the guard. When you have read over that comprehensive statement and agreed to it, you will be asked to sign it.

So by all means bring your own draft statement to the station, but expect it to be treated as nothing more than a first draft. Much or all of it may end up being incorporated in the final witness statement that you sign.