Through her experience as a witness during the Pell trial, Milligan, who won the people’s choice award in the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, learns first-hand how the adversarial system of cross-examination – with its indignities and seething manipulations, its brow-beating and haranguing – visits new traumas upon the multiply abused. Shortlisted for the 2021 Stella Prize 'Witness is an impressive, gut-wrenching interrogation of the justice system.' THE SATURDAY PAPER 'Witness is a triumph of intellect and empathy.Louise Milligan learned firsthand how the adversarial system of cross-examination visits new trauma on the abused. In detailing these flaws and the ongoing human cost, Witness is a compelling call for change.
Revealing the devastating effects of an adversarial legal system that can be sexist, callous and too often weighted towards the rich and powerful, Milligan also highlights its failure to protect the wellbeing of the most vulnerable. And through a combination of extraordinarily candid interviews with defence counsel, prosecutors and even judges, and the heartbreaking stories of witnesses in a number of high-profile cases, the brutal reality of the system is laid bare. Never-before-published court transcripts expose widespread systemic flaws. Then, she saw this first-hand when she became a witness and was cross-examined herself in the trial of the decade, R v George Pell. They have described to her how they relive the associated trauma, often years later. Throughout her career charting the experiences of people who have the courage to come forward to police and then look to find justice in court, Milligan has watched how witnesses are treated (or, too frequently, mistreated) in the courtroom. A masterful and deeply troubling expose, Witness is the culmination of five years' research for award-winning investigative journalist Louise Milligan.
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