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Child sex abuse
hysteria and the Ellis case |
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An Australian federal judge has
described our sex trials to a T. The fact is that our Evidence Act was amended
to remove (only from sex trials) the time-honoured requirement to provide
corroboration and the mandatory judicial warning about the dangers of
convicting on the basis of uncorroborated testimony. At our peril, we rely on the
"her word against his" process, and the unreasonable belief that
all allegations of sexual crime must be genuine. But police now estimate that
60 to 80 per cent of rape allegations are false. About half the rape trials
result in acquittals. Over time, memories fade,
witnesses die, documents get lost or destroyed. It is unfairly difficult to
mount a defence against specious allegations which are decades old. We
seemingly ignore the principle of innocent until proven guilty, but
defendants must never be required to prove their innocence. Belief, opinion and assumption
cannot be allowed to override fact and testable evidence. To reinstate
balance, a firm time limit on such allegations is necessary. The convenience
of "representative charges" must be discarded. Fair trials also demand
corroboration of prosecution evidence and mandatory judicial warnings. |
