Sparing victims - Law reform

Victims of sex abuse will welcome measures to spare them the pain and embarrassment of having deeply personal details disclosed to the perpetrators. 

That the proposal has come from the Law Reform Commission should mean it will be looked on favourably by the powers that be.

It would certainly make sense to hold pre-trial hearings between prosecution and defence lawyers in order to decide what information is absolutely necessary to avoid causing further harm to the victim. The danger of the current policy of full disclosure is that it can provide the abuser, and potentially the public, with damaging information relating to the injured party. Abused children are seen as particularly vulnerable if sensitive and irrelevant records are divulged which could adversely affect a child’s recovery.

There is an onus on Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald to heed the call in a report out today for new laws to clearly define how different types of evidence are categorised for selecting what needs to be shared in criminal cases. The Government must bring new urgency to resolving this issue.