AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
Rachel Browne
Innocent people could be wrongfully jailed under reforms put forward by the child sex abuse royal commission, with the Australian Lawyers Alliance describing the proposal as “dangerous”.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has released draft bills which would allow more details about an accused person’s past, known as tendency and co-incidence evidence, to be put before a jury.
In releasing the draft bills, royal commission chief executive Philip Reed said tendency and co-incidence evidence as well as joint trials, involving a number of alleged victims of the same defendant, could be significant in child sex abuse cases.
“Where the only evidence of child sexual abuse offences is the complainant’s evidence, it is likely to be more difficult for the jury to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the offences occurred because the jury is effectively considering the account of one person against the account of another,” he said.
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