Interviewing children and young people about offences
252G Interviewing children and young people about offences
This section applies if a police officer—
suspects on reasonable grounds that a child or young person may have committed, or be implicated in the commission of, an offence; or
is holding a child or young person under restraint.
A police officer must not interview the child or young person about an offence, or cause the child or young person to do anything in relation to the investigation of an offence, unless—
one of the following people (who is an adult and who the police officer does not believe on reasonable grounds to be an accomplice of the child or young person in relation to the offence) is present:
a parent of the child or young person;
someone else who has daily care responsibility, or long‑term care responsibility, for the child or young person;
a family member of the child or young person who is acceptable to the child or young person;
a lawyer acting for the child or young person;
another suitable person who is acceptable to the child or young person; or
if the police officer has taken reasonable steps to have a person mentioned in paragraph (a) present but it was not practicable for such a person to be present within 2 hours after being asked to be present—someone else who is not a police officer and has not been involved with the investigation of the offence.
Example—suitable person—par (a) (v) a person trained by the public advocate to attend interviews of children and young people
In this section:
accomplice, in relation to an offence, includes a person who a police officer believes on reasonable grounds to be likely to secrete, lose, destroy or fabricate evidence relating to the offence.
family member—see the Family Violence Act 2016, section 9.
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