AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald
JOANNE MCCARTHY
May 25, 2016
AN Australian study of people in 90 mock child sex trials has raised questions about rules allowing serial child sex offenders to successfully argue for separated trials against individual victims.
The world’s largest study of jury behaviour in child sex trials, involving more than 1000 people, has directly challenged untested assumptions about juries, including that they can be prejudiced against an accused by multiple charges and witnesses, or can reach emotional or illogical verdicts in some circumstances.
The study, commissioned and launched on Wednesday by Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse chairman Justice Peter McClellan, “will undoubtedly assist all of us to reflect on whether the current rules are appropriate”, he said.
Because child sexual abuse occurs in private, juries can be left weighing an alleged victim’s account against an alleged offender. Under those circumstances “it can be difficult for the jury to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the alleged offence occurred”, Justice McClellan said.
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