Ochronny tryb przesłuchania osób z niepełnosprawnościami jako przejaw zwiększenia ochrony pokrzywdzonych i świadków przed wtórną wiktymizacją

Intellectual disability is a state of inhibited or incomplete development of the mind, which is the main form of deficiency in skills that are revealed during the development period and affects the overall level of intelligence, i.e. cognitive, speech, motor and social abilities. There may be cases where the witness or the injured party is a person with an intellectual disability. Can such a person be questioned in a criminal court? Intellectual disability does not rule out the possibility of obtaining reliable accounts of one’s own experiences and descriptions of events, as long as the method of obtaining them takes into account the multifaceted specificity of the witness’s functioning. Unfortunately, such persons are at a particular risk of experiencing victimization. Having regard to the above, the legislator, pursuant to the Act of 13 January 2023 on amending the Code of Civil Procedure and certain other acts, introduced Art. 185e and 185f to the Code of Criminal Procedure, supplementing the thus far scope of questioning in protective modes with special conditions for hearing persons who are affected by mental or developmental disability or suffer from distorted capability of perception and recall. These provisions entered into force on 15 February 2024. The aim of the article is to present the protective mode of hearing persons with intellectual disabilities and its assessment in the context of the development of the criminal process towards enhanced protection of witnesses and injured persons against secondary victimization. The research relies on the investigation of the law in force.