Testing the Law and Testing a Child’s Evidence: Nineteenth-Century Corroboration Reforms and Child Witness Testimony

Abstract

This article examines nineteenth-century evidence and criminal law reforms that sought to balance the need for more young children to give evidence in court with the need to test their truthfulness. This period closely mirrors the current atmosphere in the aftermath of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, fears of false allegations and the #metoo movement. Drawing on case law, legislation, parliamentary debates, and newspaper reports, this article demonstrates how new unsworn testimony provisions allowed more children to be heard while, contrary to all intentions, associated corroboration reforms made prosecuting child sex offences harder than ever.

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (2018), Final Report – Recommendation 12.10, www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/recommendations (accessed 17 November 2019).

2 www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/12/wall-street-goes-full-mike-pence-to-avoid-metoo-accusations (accessed 24 September 2019); https://edition.cnn.com/2018/10/02/politics/trump-scary-time-for-young-men-metoo/index.html (accessed 17 November 2019); www.news.com.au/finance/work/at-work/the-problem-with-the-metoo-movement-and-airing-sexual-misconduct-allegations-in-public/news-story/dda67ea0c22e203444fc47afb580c0dd (accessed November 2019).

3 Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 (Imp); Criminal Law and Evidence Amendment Act 1891 (NSW); Crimes Act 1891 (Vic); Criminal Law Amendment Act 1892 (WA), Prevention of Cruelty to, and Better Protection of, Children Act 1895 (Tas).

4 R v Brasier (1779) 168 E.R. 202; United Kingdom, Hansard Parliamentary Debates, Volume 300, Committee Progress 31 July 1885, Column 754.

5 Ibid.

6 For more on corroboration rules generally see Constance Backhouse, ‘The Doctrine of Corroboration in Sexual Assault Trials in Early Twentieth-Century Canada and Australia’, Queen’s Law Journal 26, no. 2 (2001): 297; Anne Cossins, ‘Complaints of Child Sexual Abuse: Too Easy to Make or Too Difficult to Prove?’, The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology 34, no. 2 (2001); Simon Bronitt, ‘Baskerville Revisited: The Definition of Corroboration Reconsidered’, Crim. L.R 1991, Jan, 30–37.

7 R v Paul (1890) 25 QBD 202. The common law rules of corroboration were complex with two, apparently contradictory, lines of authority developing. The first was that corroborative testimony should confirm the circumstances of the crime and the identity of the prisoner: Birkett and Brady (1813) Russ & Ry 251 CCR; 168 E.R. 787. Alternatively, it was open to a jury to convict an accused on the uncorroborated testimony of a child as long as the judge had warned them of the dangers of doing so: Stubbs (1855) Dears CC 555. See Bronitt.

8 Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 (UK), s4.

9 Ibid.

10 Mark Finnane, Andy Kaladelfos, Alana Piper, Yorick Smaal, Robyn Blewer and Lisa Durnian, et al., The Prosecution Project Database (hereafter PP), https://prosecutionproject.griffith.edu.au (version 1, 17 July 2016).

11 Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (2018), Exhibit 28-0100, ‘Statement of Denis Ryan’, Case Study 28, STAT.0772.001.0001_R at [30], www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/sites/default/files/case_study_28_-_findings_report_-_catholic_church_authorities_in_ballarat_catholic_church_authorities_in_ballarat2.pdf (accessed 17 November 2019).

12 Superintendent J. McPartland to Chief Commissioner of Police, 30 November 1971, Re Monsignor John Michael Joseph Day – Allegations of Offences of Indecency Committed by, Between 1957 and 1966, Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/sites/default/files/VPOL.0017.009.0007_R.pdf (accessed 17 November 2019).

13 D.J. Grace to Chief Commissioner of Police, 5 April 1972, Re Monsignor John Michael Day – Allegations Against of Indecent Assaults, Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/sites/default/files/VPOL.0017.009.0003_R.pdf (accessed 17 November 2019).

14 Denis Ryan and Peter Hoysted, Unholy Trinity: The Hunt for the Paedophile Priest Monsignor John Day (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2013), 202.

15 Ibid.

16 Ibid., 219.

17 William Blackstone and Wayne Morrison, eds, Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England (London: Cavendish, 2001), Book 4, 214. See also Louise A. Jackson, Child Sexual Abuse in Victorian England, 1st edn (New York: Routledge, 1999), 93.

18 Mathew Hale, History of the Pleas of the Crown, 634–5, accessed via HeinOnline. See also Thomas D. Lyon and Raymond Lamagna, ‘The History of Children’s Hearsay: From Old Bailey to Post-Davis’, Indiana Law Journal 82, no. 4 (2007): 1034.

19 Blackstone and Morrison, Book 4, 214.

20 Ibid.

21 R v Paul (1890) 25 QBD 202.

22 R v Brasier (1779) 168 E.R. 202.

23 Markus D. Dubber, ‘Criminal Responsibility and the Proof of Guilt’, in Modern Histories of Crime and Punishment, eds Markus D. Dubber and Lindsay Farmer (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2007), 44.

24 Ibid.

25 Ibid.

26 Greta Wendelin, ‘A Rhetoric of Pornography: Private Style and Public Policy in “The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon”’, Rhetoric Society Quarterly 42, no. 4 (2012): 375–96, doi:10.1080/02773945.2012.704120.

27 United Kingdom, Hansard Parliamentary Debates, Volume 300, Committee Progress 31 July 1885, Column 754.

28 Ibid.; see also R v Brasier (1779) 168 E.R. 202.

29 Kim Stevenson, ‘“Not Just the Ideas of a Few Enthusiasts”: Early Twentieth Century Legal Activism and Reformation of the Age of Sexual Consent’, Cultural and Social History 14, no. 2 (2017): 219–36, doi:10.1080/14780038.2017.1290999.

30 Deborah Gorham, ‘The “Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon” Re-examined: Child Prostitution and the Idea of Childhood in Late-Victorian England’, Victorian Studies 21, no. 3 (1978): 353–79.

31 Henrik Örnebring, ‘The Maiden Tribute and the Naming of Monsters’, Journalism Studies 7, no. 6 (2006): 851–68, doi:10.1080/14616700600980546. See also Wendelin, 376.

32 Hayley Boxall, Adam Tomison and Shann Hulm, ‘Historical Review of Sexual Offence and Child Sexual Abuse Legislation in Australia 1788–2013’, Australian Institute of Criminology; Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, 2014, https://aic.gov.au/publications/special/007, 6 (accessed 17 November 2019); Richard Phillips, ‘Imperialism and the Regulation of Sexuality: Colonial Legislation on Contagious Diseases and Ages of Consent’, Journal of Historical Geography 28, no. 3 (2002): 339–62; Kevin Porter and Jeffrey Weeks, Between the Facts: Lives of Homosexual Men 1885–1967 (New York: Routledge, 1991); Jeffrey Weeks, Sex, Politics and Society: The Regulation of Sexuality since 1800, 4th edn (Abingdon: Routledge, 2014), 92; Kate Gleeson, ‘Discipline, Punishment and the Homosexual in Law’, Liverpool Law Review 28 (2007): 327–47; F.B. Smith, ‘Labouchere’s Amendment to the Criminal Law Amendment Bill’, Australian Historical Studies 17, no. 67 (1976): 165–73; Jackson, 13–15.

33 Mark Finnane and Yorick Smaal, ‘Some Questions of History – Prosecuting and Punishing Child Sexual Assault’, in The Sexual Abuse of Children: Recognition and Redress, eds Yorrick Smaal, Andy Kaladelfos and Mark Finnane (Melbourne: Monash University Publishing, 2016), 15. See Stevenson also for discussion of extant CLAA literature.

34 CLAA s4. For the few references to this reform see Cossins, 155; Michael Harris and Gregor Urbas, ‘Children’s Unsworn Evidence: Historical Developments and Contemporary Issues’, UNSW Law Journal 40, no. 4 (2017): 1392–427.

35 United Kingdom, Hansard Parliamentary Debates, Volume 300, Committee Progress 31 July 1885, Column 754.

36 Ibid.

37 Frederick Mead, Archibald Henry Bodkin, and Great Britain, The Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1885: with Introduction, Notes, and Index (London: Shaw & Sons, 1885).

38 CLAA s4.

39 See e.g. ‘The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon’, South Australian Register, 15 August 1885, 6, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article44949111 (accessed 14 November 2018); ‘The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon’, The Age, 17 August 1885, 5, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article191192517 (accessed 14 November 2018); ‘Frightful Revelations of Life in London’, Evening News (Sydney), 20 August 1885, 7, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article111021327 (accessed 14 November 2018).

40 Robert van Krieken, Children and the State: Social Control and the Formation of Australian Child Welfare (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1992); Jill Bavin-Mizzi, ‘Understandings of Justice: Australian Rape and Carnal Knowledge Cases 1876–1924’, in Sex, Power and Justice: Historical Perspectives of Law in Australia, ed. Diane Kirkby (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1995), 29; Judith A. Allen, Sex and Secrets: Crimes Involving Australian Women since 1880 (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1990).

41 The Seduction Punishment Bill 1888 (NSW) mirrored some provisions of the CLAA but failed to pass through Parliament. For more on the Bill’s defeat see Michael Sturma, ‘Seduction and Punishment in Late Nineteenth-Century New South Wales’, Australian Journal of Law and Society 2, no. 2 (1985): 76–82.

42 Criminal Law and Evidence Amendment Act 1891 (NSW) enacted 14 December 1891. Crimes Act 1891 (Vic) enacted 23 December 1891.

43 Crimes Act 1891 (Vic) s33.

44 Victoria, Parliamentary Debates, Legislative Council, 27 August 1890, 1285.

45 ‘The Criminal Law Amendment Act’, Geelong Advertiser, 23 February 1892, 4, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article149925425 (accessed 14 November 2018).

46 Criminal Law and Evidence Amendment Act 1891 (NSW), sexual offences committed against girls u14 (ss41–44) and buggery (s59), indecent assault on male (s60); Crimes Act 1891 (Vic), rape, unlawful, carnal knowledge (and attempt) against girls – s33(2); Criminal Law Amendment Act 1892 (WA), defilement of girl u12 (and attempt); girl 12–14yrs, s4; Prevention of Cruelty to, and Better Protection of, Children Act 1895 (Tas), offences under that Act, s8.

47 Criminal Code 1899 (Qld), accomplice (s632); defile girls u12 (s212); u14 and idiots (s215); procuring (s217 and s218).

48 South Australian legislation contained general corroboration requirements that reflect the English concern with prostitution. See Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1885 (SA), s14 – procuring prostitution. See also Evidence Amendment Act 1955 (SA), s3.

49 PP, Trial ID 560822, Victorian Supreme Court [VICSC], Edmund Gregg, 1892; ‘News of the Day’, The Age, 14 April 1892, 4, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article197006325 (accessed 14 November 2018).

50 ‘The Criminal Court’, The Age, 25 March 1892, 7, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article197001257 (accessed 19 November 2018).

51 ‘Law Courts’, Leader (Melbourne), 16 April 1892, 19, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article197975576 (accessed 14 November 2018).

52 R v Gregg (1892) 18 VLR 218.

53 Ibid.

54 Ibid., 222.

55 R v Paul (1890) 25 QBD 202.

56 Ibid., 224.

57 Ibid., 224, Hood J.

58 PP, Trial ID 559765, Victorian Supreme Court [VICSC], Edmund Gregg, 1892; ‘News of the Day’, The Age, 26 May 1892, 4, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article199330498 (accessed 19 November 2018).

59 R v Walsh (1905) 7 WAR 263.

60 PP, Trial ID 4913, West Australian Supreme Court [WASC], John Walsh, 1905.

61 R v Walsh (1905) 7 WAR 263, 264, Gibbs CJ.

62 ‘Alleged Criminal Offence’, The Daily News (Perth), 8 June 1905, 11.

63 R v Walsh (1905) 7 WAR 263, 264, Gibbs CJ.

64 Ibid.

65 Ibid., 265.

66 Ibid.

67 Ibid., 264.

68 Ibid.

69 ‘Baandee Banality’, Truth (Perth), 2 September 1905, 2.

70 R v Carroll (1906) 6 NSW SR 258. See also PP, Trial ID 56902, NSW Supreme Court [NSWSC], William Carroll, 1906.

71 Crimes Act 1900 (NSW), s418.

72 Ibid., s418 (2).

73 R v Carroll (1906) 6 NSW SR 258, 259.

74 Ibid.

75 Ibid.

76 R v Carroll (1906) 6 NSW SR 258.

77 See also Peacock v R (1911) 13 CLR 619, on corroboration of an accomplice (not child); R v O’Brien [1912] VLR 133, where six-year-old twins gave evidence pursuant to Evidence Act 1890 (Vic), s33(2); and Sullivan v R (1913) 15 WAR 23. See also Backhouse, ‘The Doctrine of Corroboration’, 297.

78 Eather v R (1914) 19 CLR 409.

79 Crimes Act 1900 (NSW), s418.

80 R v Eather (1914) 14 NSW SR 280, 281.

81 Ibid., 280, 285.

82 Eather v R (1914) 19 CLR 409.

83 Ibid., 416.

84 Ibid.

85 Ibid., 409, 429.

86 Ibid.

87 Jackson, 106.

88 Ibid.

89 Ibid.

90 Ibid.

91 Ibid.

92 Criminal Law and Evidence Amendment Act 1891 (NSW), buggery (s59), indecent assault on male (s60).

93 Bavin-Mizzi, 29.

94 Ibid., 19–32.

95 Robyn Blewer, ‘“Commonsense Tribunals for Erring Little Folks”: Children’s Courts Legislation in Australia – 1895 to 1907’, Limina: A Journal of Historical and Cultural Studies 22, no. 2 (2017): 69–84; Dorothy Scott and Shurlee Swain, Confronting Cruelty: Historical Perspectives on Child Abuse (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2002), 120; John Seymour, Dealing with Young Offenders (Sydney: The Law Book Company Limited, 1988), 83; Krieken.

96 A. Kaladelfos, ‘The Politics of Punishment: Rape and the Death Penalty in Colonial Australia, 1841–1901’, History Australia 9, no. 1 (2012): 155–75; Carolyn Strange, ‘Masculinities, Intimate Femicide and the Death Penalty in Australia, 1890–1920’, The British Journal of Criminology 43, no. 2 (2003): 310–39; Finnane and Smaal; Bavin-Mizzi, 21.

97 Jill Hunter, Terese Henning, Gary Edmond, Rebecca McMahon and James Metzger, The Trial: Principles, Process and Evidence (Sydney: The Federation Press, 2015), 696.

98 Evidence Act Amendment Bill 1944 (WA).

99 Western Australia, Parliamentary Debates, Legislative Assembly, 6 September 1944 (Hon. N. Keenan), 445.

100 Ibid.

101 Ibid.

102 Western Australia, Parliamentary Debates, Legislative Assembly, 20 October 1944 (Minister for Justice), 722.

103 Ibid.

104 Western Australia, Parliamentary Debates, Legislative Council, 24 October 1944, 1271.

105 Acts Amendment (Evidence of Children and Others) Act 1992 (WA).

106 R v Scruby [1952] WALR 1, 4 applying R v Manser (1934) 25 Cr.App.R. 18.

107 Western Australia, Parliamentary Debates, Legislative Council, 6 April 1992 (Hon. Peter Foss), 3397.

108 Bavin-Mizzi, 21.

109 See discussion in Susan Leahy, ‘The Corroboration Warning in Sexual Offence Trials: Final Vestige of the Historic Suspicion of Sexual Offence Complainants or a Necessary Protection for Defendants?’ The International Journal of Evidence & Proof 18, no. 1 (2014): 41–64.

110 See ‘No Jury Would Convict’, Kalgoorlie Western Argus, 3 March 1914, 23; ‘Women of Wynnum’, Daily Standard (Brisbane), 27 May 1926, 1.

111 Constance Backhouse, ‘Skewering the Credibility of Women: A Reappraisal of Corroboration in Australian Legal History’, Western Australian Law Review 20 (2000): 79.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Australian Research Council FL130100050 The Prosecution Project.