METROPOLIS – House Republican Floor Leader State Rep. Patrick Windhorst is once again a featured guest on the House Republicans’ Capitol Crimes podcast.
In the latest edition, Rep. Windhorst explains how children in abusive situations are treated by the court, and how the court deals with gathering vital testimony from child victims.
“There have been circumstances where children have struggled to testify in court because of past traumas and because they feel overwhelmed and intimidated,” Windhorst said. “Without evidence from the victim, it is difficult to prosecute cases. In the case of Martin Hubbard, the use of closed circuit television testimony was used to secure testimony against him and he was subsequently convicted and sentenced to life in prison.”
In late 2022, Martin Hubbard was convicted of eight counts of predatory sexual assault and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. Earlier in the year he had been found guilty of two counts each for sexually assaulting four children under the age of 5 years old while they were in the care of his wife’s Effingham daycare.
But that’s not the entire story, nor is it the only harm these young children had to endure. Because in order to get the conviction that would put the predator behind bars, these young children had to re-tell and re-live their stories over and over again.
The latest episode of Capitol Crimes recounts the steps taken by lawmakers to consider the rights of defendants and protect the well-being of child victims when they testify against their abusers.
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