Mr AU

Mr AU was convicted in November 2000 of indecent assault and rape. Mr AU received a sentence of 12 years’ imprisonment.

The CCRC received an application for review of the conviction in July 2003.

Mr AU was the father of the complainant who had made allegations against both him and another defendant, Mr AV (the complainant’s music teacher at school).

The two defendants had no connection with one another but were accused of sexual abuse in very similar terms.

The two cases were tried separately and neither jury were made aware of the allegations against the other defendant.

The offending by Mr AU was said to have occurred whilst the complainant was aged between three and ten.

The complainant’s accounts, even for those offences alleged to have taken place when the complainant was three to four, were very vivid and detailed.

During review, the CCRC obtained fresh expert psychological evidence indicating that recall of early childhood memories did not occur in this level of detail and that the complainant’s accounts ran beyond the power of human memory.

In the expert’s opinion, the accounts did not ring true as genuine expressions of memory but rather as constructed narratives.

In addition, the CCRC obtained new evidence from the complainant’s medical files showing that there were serious inconsistencies between her disclosures to psychotherapists and her evidence in court.

The CCRC concluded this impacted the complainant’s credibility and her reliability as a witness of truth.

The CCRC referred the conviction in September 2004.

The Court of Appeal quashed the conviction in July 2005.