29 January 2020
Family judges who hear cases involving serious sexual assault are to be given the same training as criminal judges, after a decision by Judge Tolson QC was found to be ‘so flawed as to require a retrial’
Tolson’s judgment, in an application for contact case where the mother alleged domestic abuse and sexual assault, had been based on ‘obsolescent concepts’ of consent, that the complainant should physically resist penetration in order to establish lack of consent, the appeal judge said, in JH v MF [2020] All ER (D) 94 (Jan).
Writing for LexisNexis, barrister Katherine Gittins of 3 Dr Johnson’s Buildings, said the change was ‘reassuring’, and practitioners could also consider ‘requesting a ground rules hearing or making an application for special measures… to allow the complainant to give their best evidence.’
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