VPRS 18244 Witness Statements [Published]

This series consists of witness statements and associated attachments relating to the Royal Commission into Family Violence (RCFV). The witness statements in this series are those that were published to the Commission's website during the course of the Commission. Witness statements were published, along with transcripts of proceedings, on the working day following each hearing.Key information recorded for each witness statement in this series includes:* The name of the witness (or their pseudonym).* The date the statement was signed by the witness and who drafted the statement.* The date the witness appeared before the Commission to give the statement and the name of the hearing module.* The unique identifier assigned to the statement.Key information recorded for each attachment in this series includes:* The nominated title of the attachment.* The date the related witness appeared before the Commission and the name of the hearing module.* The unique identifier assigned to the attachment.* The simple number, combined with the witness initials, assigned to the attachment to help delineate multiple attachments related to the same witness.Note that published witness statements were redacted (blacked out) where appropriate, for legal, privacy and/or safety reasons, or as the Commission otherwise thought it appropriate to do so. Lay witnesses - individuals who had direct experience of family violence, were assigned pseudonyms. Lay witness names are indicated as follows: Witness Statement of 'Melissa Brown'. The Commission also reserved the right not to publish. For safety reasons, one lay witness statement was never published.Attachments that were considered confidential had their title replaced by the word CONFIDENTIAL and only the attachment cover page was published.Some additional information that may be of use to researchers includes:* Not all witnesses gave a written statement (54 did not).* Not all written statements were from witnesses who appeared before the Commission during hearings (despite being labelled 'witness statement'), but were in response to a 'Notice to Appear and Attend' or a 'Notice to Produce'.* Some statements are joint statements, and some joint statements were made by a combination of someone who appeared and someone who did not.* Some witnesses appeared more than once, but made only one statement.* Some witnesses appeared more than once and had a new statement for each day.* Some statements were made to supplement evidence given or points raised during hearings but were not provided during hearings.* A witness can have multiple files associated (statement and attachments) or none.Additional information about the role of witnesses can be found Volume 1, Section 1 of the Commission's final report: 'The Royal Commission and its work'. Appendix D of Volume 1 also has more information about witnesses (their role/organisation) which may be of interest.Related series include:- VPRS 18232 Witness Statements [Legal Discovery / Casement Management System]. Contains the final, executed versions of witness statements with additional metadata. Includes unredacted versions.- VPRS 18231 Legal Team Records [Administrative and Investigative Records Collection]. Used to store draft and / or unsigned versions of witness statements to allow for review by the Commission's legal and policy teams who did not have access to the Commission's case management / legal discovery system.