When it’s your turn to give evidence, someone can usually go with you into court, or into the room where you will give your evidence. It can be your witness supporter, but you may have someone else who has been helping you, and who you already know and trust. It may be a teacher, a young peoples’ worker, an Independent Domestic Violence Advisor (IDVA) or an Independent Sexual Violence Advisor (ISVA); you can ask this person to support you at court, and they can wait with you in the waiting room. Your family members will be able to wait with you in the waiting room too.
Your witness supporter can help you decide if you want your family members to stay in the waiting room while you give your evidence in court. If any of your family members are witnesses in the case, they won’t be able to sit in the courtroom while you’re giving evidence.
If the court has agreed you can have an intermediary – someone who is there to help you understand the questions in court, and to make sure the court understands your answers – they can also wait with you in the waiting room and will be with you whilst you give your evidence