Warning: This article contains details about sexual abuse which
may be upsetting for some readers. Reader discretion is
advised.
This case concerned the treatment of evidence and the
correct standard of proof in a civil case of sexual
abuse.
In issue
Whether the primary judge:
- failed to correctly apply the civil standard of proof,
- erred in assessing the evidence of the appellant and her two
cousins,
- made a number of erroneous factual findings and/or provided
inadequate reasons for those findings, and
- erred in declining to make an adverse credibility finding
against the respondent.
The background
The appellant appealed to the primary judge's dismissal of
her claim. The appellant alleged that, as a young child, she was
sexually abused by the respondent, then aged 17 or 18, on two
occasions in the early 1970s.
