The Damilola trial showed witness problems, say some prosecutors

Defence lawyers are already to able to question their clients and witnesses.

But since the 19th century there has been a ban on prosecutors doing the same before court cases.

The problems seen in the Damilola Taylor murder trial had prompted calls for change. Those have now been backed by Attorney General Lord Goldsmith.

Going 'world class'

Scotland is among other countries whose court systems allow prosecution interviews.

In England and Wales, prosecutors currently rely on statements from police interviews - something the director of public prosecutions has said should change.

Lord Goldsmith consulted on the idea last year and is now backing demands for a new system.

"It is striking that it is only in England and Wales that prosecutors do not have direct access to witnesses even in order to assess their credibility and reliability," he said.

"If my vision of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) as a world class prosecuting service, admired and respected and seen by all as a champion for victims and justice, is to be realised, this must change."

Reliability test

The pre-trial interviews would happen where prosecutors decide they need to check the reliability of a witness or parts of their testimony as they clarify evidence or consider whether to go ahead with a prosecution.

They would usually happen once police had finished most of their investigations.

Lord Goldsmith said: "The main function of the interview would generally not be to question the witness to gather evidence (although further evidence will come to light in some cases).

"It would be to establish whether or not the evidence of the witness, already provided to the police in a statement, is reliable, accurate or complete."

He promised a code of practice on how the interviews should be conducted and said any other worries about unfairness could be handled when the case went to trial.

A working group is now being set up to consider how best to pilot the plans.

'Unemotional'

In the Damilola murder trial a teenage witness, code-named Bromley, was deemed unreliable by the trial judge who then directed a not-guilty verdict.

The Director of Public Prosecutions, Ken Macdonald, has used the case as an example of how it could be unclear that a witness would be "problematic" until they began giving evidence.

The Bar Council said the plans could help in assessing witnesses before they went into the courtroom.

But it wants to have "unchallengeable" video recordings of the interviews, rather than just a written note.

And council chairman Stephen Irwin stressed: "These changes must not lead prosecutors to become partisan, or to take decisions from sympathy or from emotion."