Sexual Assault Trials Handbook — Recording evidence and evidentiary issues in child sexual abuse cases

A Pichler et al, “Inconsistencies in complainants’ accounts of child sexual abuse arising in their cross-examination” (2020) Psychology, Crime & Law 1.

In this study of cross-examination of 73 complainants in child sex abuse trials, inconsistencies were found to have been raised in relation to 94.5% of complainants. Most inconsistencies were between what was said in police interview compared with cross-examination. A larger proportion of inconsistencies were associated with specific questions, compared with open-ended questions.