The Chief State Solicitor for Limerick, Michael Murray, has said that widespread witness intimidation in the area will continue to collapse criminal trials if the situation is not addressed, and he has called for "harsh measures" to see it rectified.
Speaking on RTÉ radio yesterday he said the trend had developed "on a creeping basis" over the past five years and a tough response was required.
He proposed that magistrates be made available to prove or verify witness statements. "The person can be interviewed before a judicial figure, preferably with his own solicitor present, and video recorded. He will be required to tell the court what he saw at the time. If he failed to do so the judge would have powers to imprison him," he said.
Mr Murray proposed that when a witness became a victim of intimidation, the State should "rewrite the contract with the citizen in more stringent terms." He said in some cases the right to remain silent should be "watered down" and that witnesses should be compelled to make statements and co-operate with the investigation.
"On a weekly basis the guards are coming across people who simply will not make statements. There is a huge amount of cases where people have simply refused to co-operate with the guards," he said.
Mr Murray refuted the claims of a report entitled Witness Intimidation: Criminal Justice in Crisis which found that the media had exaggerated the extent of the problem. "I think that that study really is only taking into account what is appearing before the courts and not realising that there is a lot of lack of co-operation from potential witnesses that never see the light of day," he said.
The State Solicitor gave various reasons why a witness would decide not to give evidence, ranging from a pact with the criminal, to genuine fear because of active intimidation.
Mr Murray said there were also people who did not do their civil duty because they perceived themselves to be at risk from intimidation. He said preserving the "integrity of the system" should be a priority. "Until the authorities begin to say we are going to have to do something about this, it will continue."