Miscarriages of justice can and do occur with sexual offences, according to a leading senior counsel. Mr Patrick Gageby SC told a conference there was a particular danger of this happening when the case relates to old offences.
In more recent cases there was usually forensic evidence which could be of help to the accused as well as to the prosecution. But this did not exist with old cases.
Mr Gageby said there was also a subversion of the presumption of innocence with old cases. People asked why a person would "say such a thing" if the offence had not happened. It was important that old cases be carefully investigated, and that collateral matters be examined.
Giving an example from his own defence experience, he said he had a case where the victim described being abused in a neighbour's house, and had a vivid memory of a floral-covered couch in the room. It emerged on investigation this couch was in his own home, not the neighbour's.
He warned that cases up to 40 or 50 years old might be given a credence they did not deserve. Judges should give carefully worded warnings to juries when they were summing up old cases.
Proper and full disclosure was vital, he said. The gardaí were not there primarily to help the victim, but to assist in the administration of justice.
Ms Mary Ellen Ring SC, speaking about the perspective of the prosecution lawyer, said there might never be a perfect system. Often the statement to the gardaí from the complainant contained a very bare report, but this was what the prosecution was confined to.
There was also an issue about when complaints were first made. Especially when the victim was a child, he or she would often first speak to a friend or peer, to get confidence to disclose the abuse to an adult, she said. "So when was the complaint made?" she asked.
It was necessary to look at the whole process in a more child-appropriate fashion, she said. For example, in relation to making a complaint "voluntarily", there might have to be some probing to get the necessary details.
It was also helpful to meet the complainant before the trial, not to discuss the evidence, but to identify any speech or hearing defects they might have, and to tell them to speak up. "They don't want to know what to say, but rather to know how long it will take, what will happen, and so on," she said.
She criticised the continuing lack of video facilities, and the fact that this often meant that victims had to travel to Dublin, with resulting more delays. Delays could also be created where there were multiple complainants with separate trials, and sentencing did not take place until the last one finished.