Following a judge-alone trial on historical sexual offence charges, the court convicted the accused of two counts of sexual interference and three counts of sexual assault arising from three incidents involving a child and adolescent complainant within an extended family context.
The defence challenged the complainant’s credibility and reliability based on omissions from her police statement, temporal imprecision, subsequent cordial contact, and asserted improbabilities.
The court held that no special evidentiary rules apply to historical sexual offences, that delayed disclosure and non-stereotypical behaviour cannot ground adverse credibility findings, and that peripheral inconsistencies must be assessed contextually.
Finding the complainant’s evidence stable on the essential elements and her explanations for omissions and memory gaps persuasive, the court was satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt on all counts.
