PROSECUTORS are asking children in York and North Yorkshire their advice on the best way to convict criminals.

They want young crime victims to tell them how they can make giving evidence less of an ordeal.

Very young children can be essential witnesses, needed to put paedophiles behind bars in cases like that of Bryan Stanford, formerly of York, now serving life for raping boys.

So staff at North Yorkshire Crown Prosecution Service are talking to youngsters as part of a drive to put witnesses' needs at the top of their list.

News of the development came as the county's chief prosecutor Rob Turnbull unveiled the first annual report of North Yorkshire Crown Prosecution Service.

And he pledged his staff will do whatever they can to help victims and witnesses of crime.

He was speaking at the end of a year in which his staff has successfully handled a major shake-up of magistrates courts, increasing Government pressure to prosecute faster, and the national reorganisation of the CPS.

It did so while securing convictions like that of Craig Townend, the York City Art Gallery armed robber now serving 15 years; the two Harrogate schoolboys serving six years for attempting to murder their 13-year-old friend; and York teenager Jamie Richardson, now serving four years for the manslaughter of a psychiatric patient.

Now the county CPS is giving a high priority to the needs of victims, especially vulnerable people such as children, and human rights.

"We are seeking to improve the lot of witnesses," said Mr Turnbull. "There would be no criminal system without them.

"We will do whatever we can with others to try and improve the situation for them. It is a difficult business giving evidence."

Witness co-operation was essential in the successful prosecution of Selby drug baron brothers Alan and John Bell, now serving 12 years each for their "gangster" approach to heroin dealing.

The jury heard that witnesses were threatened before the trial. Some still fear reprisals, months later, and have spoken of further threats because they gave evidence against them.

Child abuse cases are sometimes dropped when a youngster cannot face the ordeal of being a witness.

But now prosecutors are asking children who have given evidence what they found helpful and unhelpful in a bid to make life easier for their successors.

Overall, despite an increased caseload over the last year, the North Yorkshire CPS branch has a conviction rate at the magistrates court of 99.1 per cent, and at the crown court of 91.5 per cent.

On one occasion recently, a judge expressed surprise that the CPS had accepted a guilty plea to a lesser charge in a drug dealing case.

Mr Turnbull categorically denied that staff accept pleas to lesser charges to prevent the cost or gamble of pushing a greater charge to trial.

He said such decisions were always made in accordance with the CPS' code of conduct and cost is never an issue.