Historic Sexual Offences: A Guide for Criminal Lawyers

Introduction

Over the last twenty years there have been significant changes in the justice system towards historic allegations of sexual offences. The increased awareness and rates of prosecution present a challenge to the legal system, creating tensions within our already overstretched court system, resulting in mistakes being made, resulting in convictions being overturned and, innocent individuals being incarcerated for years for crimes that never happened.

This seminar will highlight where mistakes are commonly made when handling historic sexual offences.

What You Will Learn

This seminar will cover the following:

• Evidential pitfalls that arise with historic cases
• Relevance and importance of old law and where it applies
• Offences on the indictment
• Presumption that a boy under 14 incapable of vaginal or anal intercourse
• Doli incapax rebuttable presumption child aged 10 - 14 was incapable of committing a crime
• Demeanour and distress evidence within context of historic cases
• Identifying when missing evidence, records or witnesses impact upon the fairness of the proceedings
• Identifying the impact of delay on the proceedings and the remedies available
• Abuse of process arguments focusing upon previous police investigations/discission not to prosecute
• Sentencing for historic offences, including common sentencing mistakes
• Consequences of conviction and making of orders for historic offences. SHPO etc
• Recent decisions of the Court of Appeal on historic allegations
• Evidence of complaint