형사재판에 있어서 아동증언의 증거능력

A Study of the Evidence Admissibility of Child Testimony in Criminal Trial

A statement is very influential in criminal trial. In child testimony, it’s a matter of whether or not to admit a child’s statement. When a child states what he/she witnessed in court, it could be accepted as the data that form a judge’s conviction in principle. However, the problem comes down to the admissibility of the hearsay statement or documents. As a rule, the statements outside court will not be presented to the court. If they are reliable and worth as evidence, however, they are permitted to be presented to the court. In case of children, on the contrary, testifying what they saw or experienced in court could have a bad impact on their physical and mental health. In fact, it’s not easy to have a child appear and testify in court and make his/her statement admitted as evidence. What is worse, it’s really difficult to figure out what really happened because of too much restriction on evidence admissibility. In this case, therefore, it appears reasonable if a court examines an expert’s opinion on a child’s mental and psychological conditions and his/her statements and comprehensively considers the child’s age, time lapse and the atmosphere when he/she was being interrogated after finding some reasonable reasons why he/she has not been able to appear in court. Furthermore, even though the video-taped child’s statement has been admitted as evidence because of the testimony of his/her guardian who was with him/her when he/she was being questioned, a court may find some reasonable reasons why the child can’t testify in court. In other words, if it’s been admitted that a child’s guardian who has maintained reliable relationship with the child unwittingly said what he was told from the child to one of his/her acquaintances, a court should admit it as evidence. In particular, considering the fact that video has been admitted as evidence with an advance in scientific technology, it could be regarded as an advance in new criminal procedure law. However, it’s a shame to fail to admit the videotape of child’s statement, which has been made during criminal investigation because of new regulation has not been enacted yet. As more children are recently victimized by crime, it’s time to admit a child’s statement as evidence provided that the vulnerability of a child’s statement is fully understood.