Victims of sexual violence in North Rhine-Westphalia can be questioned by investigators and courts across the board using video technology. This emerges from a report by Justice Minister Benjamin Limbach (Greens) to the members of the Legal Affairs Committee, which is meeting in Düsseldorf on Wednesday. According to this, 295 systems have been distributed to the police authorities in the country in recent years. "This ensures comprehensive equipment in all KPB of the NRW police," says the report.

In the judiciary, 87 district and 19 regional courts in NRW are equipped with the technology to gently question the victims. According to the report in the courts, these are mainly mobile solutions. The technology can be set up and dismantled quickly in order to be able to deliver it to other authorities.

According to the Minister of Justice, all courts in the country now have access to video technology for questioning and testimonies from victims. The Minister of Justice has had to remain vague on the question of using the technology since the end of 2019. The presidents of the competent higher regional courts in Düsseldorf, Hamm and Cologne could only have provided partial figures. Not all surveys were statistically recorded, and in some cases it was unclear whether those questioned in the proceedings were also victims of sexual violence.

In the area of ​​the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court, 60 to 65 cases are known in the run-up to processes in which victims were questioned using video technology. Video witness hearings in the single-digit range are known from the courts themselves.

The Higher Regional Court in Cologne cannot give any figures. Only in Bonn are there a handful of witness hearings per year using screen technology. For example, the video testimony of a nine-year-old victim was introduced in a sexual abuse trial last year.

In the Westphalian part of the country with the responsible higher regional court in Hamm, there were 34 video statements during the investigation. According to the statistics evaluated, the technology was not used in processes at the district and regional courts.

However, the report indicates that those involved in the process are not always informed about the use of video technology. In some cases, the statements are introduced into the processes in text form after the video recordings had previously been evaluated accordingly.

Report of the Minister of Justice