Historical Sexual Abuse Radio 6PR Interview
On the 7th July 2019, I was asked by the producer for Karl O’Callaghan the former Commissioner of Police to appear on his Sunday morning talk show to speak about Historical Sexual Abuse cases and the potential for miscarriages of justice. Here is what I had to say.
Main Points
Historical sex abuse cases involve allegations about events that are said to have happened years, if not decades, in the past. As such, one of the most difficult aspects to defending and prosecuting these cases is the effluxion of time and the reality that a person’s memory of events years ago, corroborating witnesses for the defence or prosecution, forensic evidence such as DNA and fingerprints, clothing items, and so on, are simply not available to be presented as evidence before a court. Indeed most trials boil down to the complainant’s word against the denials of the accused and given the very subject matter acquittals can be problematic.
