PROBLEMS OF PROVING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE – ANATOMY OF A CASE
Keywords:
case review, domestic violence, proving, defendant, injured partyAbstract
Proving represents a crucial, but also a very complex issue of the criminal proceedings. On the path to establishing the factual state there are numerous obstacles, some of which are objective, while others are subjective in nature.
These difficulties become especially evident when it comes to criminal acts committed within a family. As a rule, these criminal acts most often occur within the household, without the presence of other witnesses who, even when they are present, are usually the so-called privileged witnesses, in the sense of criminal proceedings and, due to their kinship with the defendant, have the right to refrain from testifying in the criminal proceedings. On the other hand, even if these persons decide to testify, their testimony may be considered as untruthful, precisely because of their close relationship with the defendant.
Bearing in mind the importance of proof in the criminal proceedings, as well as the specificity of proving criminal acts committed within a family, the topic of this paper is a review of a case of domestic violence in which the defendant and the injured party – common-law spouses, were the only participants in the critical event. Through an analysis of the formation and alteration of the factual state during the stages of the criminal proceedings, it was pointed to the difficulties in proving that led to the conviction of the defendant for a significantly different criminal act (serious bodily harm, referred to in Art. 121, p. 1 of the Criminal Code), instead of the act that he was originally charged for (rape, referred to in Art. 178, p. 3 in conjunction with p. 1 of the CC).
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