THE PROSECUTION OF CHILD SEXUAL ASSAULT - A SURVEY OF NSW DPP SOLICITORS

Over the last decade, there has been a number of changes in the law an d in courtroom procedures in relation to the prosecution of child sexu al assault. These changes were intended to ease the restrictions on th e admission of children's evidence and to make the experience of testi fying less stressful for child witnesses. Court statistics on the outc ome of child sexual assault prosecutions and the results of a survey b y the NSW Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) of prose cuted cases of child sexual assault in New South Wales were examined t o throw some light on the way such prosecutions and the child witnesse s involved were dealt with in the criminal justice system. One of the major concerns was that while some reforms have allowed more and young er children to give evidence, full advantage has not been taken of oth er reforms to ease children's experience at court.