The defendant appealed against his conviction for sexual assault on his child niece. He said that he had not been allowed to put to her allegations that she had made other, and false allegations against boys.
Held: The appeal failed: ‘although, essentially, Miss Bache was pursuing a bad character application, out of an excess of caution he would also treat it as an application under s. 41 of the 1999 Act, particularly given the age of the young witnesses. He considered, however, that there was no evidence that the complainant had lied about being sexually active and that, in any event, the girls may have been discussing low level sexual contact and not sexual intercourse. He concluded that the girls’ discussions about prior sexual activity of unknown origin and truth could not impact upon whether C had lied about the specific allegations of sexual abuse made against the appellant. ‘
Sir Brian Leveson P QBD, Keith, Lang JJ
[2014] EWCA Crim 618
Bailii
Criminal Justice Act 2003 100, Youth Justice and Criminal Justice Act 1999 41
England and Wales
Criminal Evidence
Updated: 02 December 2021; Ref: scu.523430