Many of our most long-standing legal rights are being slowly and steadily eroded in the name of “victim’s rights”. For instance, a man charged with rape is forbidden from telling the court that his accuser is a serial false accuser. A father cleared by every court of abusing his daughter is unable to stop a “human rights” panel awarding her compensation – and thereby smearing his name – for crimes that never happened. Police actively solicited complaints in order to falsely accuse Cardinal George Pell of child abuse.
But the latest legal changes in Victoria, while claiming to protect victims, have been attacked for punishing victims and protecting paedophiles.
Victorian sexual assault survivors could be jailed for up to four months or face fines exceeding $3000 for telling their stories using their real names.
The Judicial Proceedings Reports Act was changed in February, prohibiting victims from identifying themselves publicly if their attacker has been found guilty.
To add insult to injury, the law applies retrospectively.
Meaning victims who have lawfully spoken out previously are now censored from speaking out publicly. Media outlets who defy the law can also be prosecuted and face fines of up to $8,000.
The only way for victims to identify themselves and tell their stories is to obtain a court order – which is not only time consuming, but would cost more than $10,000 in legal fees[…]
Dr Rachael Burgin, lecturer in the Swinburne Law School, described the change in the law as a ‘major victory’ for convicted paedophiles and rapists[…]
Not only can victims no longer use their real names, they cannot provide any identifying features such as photos in publications such as memoirs and autobiographies unless they get a court order.
This current law is an extension of an original “victim’s rights” law enacted in 1991, to protect the identity of sexual offence survivors. Frank Vincent QC, in his “Open Courts Act Review”, summarised that some sexual offence survivors may “not wish to have what happened to them to be generally known, and their privacy must be respected and protected”.
But even Vincent acknowledged that “an increasing number of victims reject the absurd notion that they have been in any way diminished by the commission of criminal acts committed against them by another”.
It seems that this is yet another example of the Andrews government’s astonishing incompetence. The changes have resulted in a confused, complex and apparently contradictory legal frameworks. This is, as law lecturer Natalia Antolak-Saper writes, “likely the product of introducing amendments on top of amendments, rather than reforming the framework holistically”.
Victorian Attorney-General, Jill Hennessy has written to[…] members of the #LetUsSpeak campaign to say she is ‘very sorry’ to hear of their experiences.
She has requested the Department of Justice and Community Safety look into the cases.
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