Witness Assistance Officer

Sydney, NSW; Melbourne, VIC The Witness Assistance Officer (WAO) performs an important role within the Office of the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecution's (CDPP) Witness Assistance Service (WAS). The WAS aims to minimise the stress and risk of potential re-traumatisation for victims of crime, their families and vulnerable witnesses involved in matters prosecuted by the CDPP. We work with a diverse range of victims/witnesses including those involved in prosecutions relating to online child sexual exploitation, people trafficking and work health and safety offences. The vast majority of matters referred to the WAS involve children/young and online child sexual exploitation offences, such matters require WAS staff to communicate with parents and caregivers. The WAO is a high-volume casework role. The WAO provides prosecution-related information and support to victims of crime and vulnerable witnesses and helps to ensure the Office meets its various legal and policy obligations. The WAO does not perform a counselling role, but does provide victims of crime and vulnerable witnesses with referrals and information to various support services, including counselling services. Vulnerable persons can be located around Australia and in some cases overseas - as a result the nature of our work involves a significant amount of communication via telephone, in writing and via virtual platforms such as Microsoft Teams. #J-18808-Ljbffr