Dying Man Gives Evidence With His Eyes to Help Convict Vicar Who Abused Him

The Guardian ^ | Owen Bowcott

[nickcarraway]

Former choirboy with motor neurone disease was able to testify by using Stephen Hawking-style eye-tracking equipment

A former church chorister rendered immobile by motor neurone disease has been helped to fulfil his dying wish – to give courtroom evidence against his abuser using eye-tracking technology.

In what is believed to be the first time Eyegaze equipment has been used for cross-examination in a British crown court, a retired Anglican vicar has been convicted of three counts of indecent assault dating back to the 1970s.

The victim, who was a young boy when the offences occurred, recorded his evidence and was then questioned by lawyers at Bournemouth crown court via video link as he lay in a hospice bed in Streatham, south London. He was helped by an intermediary provided by the Ministry of Justice.

The eye-tracking technology is similar to the screen used by Cambridge physicist Stephen Hawking to communicate.

The 47-year-old former chorister, who has not been identified, used the technology to recall the attacks during his childhood.

Although he achieved his aim of getting justice, the man did not live to hear the outcome of the case. A Metropolitan police officer was sent to Streatham to deliver news of the guilty verdict, but his errand was cancelled before he could reach the hospice after the force was informed that the victim had just died.

Cyril Rowe, now 78, was a vicar at St Matthias Anglican church in Stoke Newington, London, where the boy was in the choir. Rowe, now living in Bournemouth, was found guilty last Wednesday and is due to be sentenced on 10 March.

[heterosupremacist]

no words to express - good post...

[Fiji Hill]

In this country, motor neuron disease is better known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or Charcot’s disease.