Child Sex Abuse: Lower Burden of Proof Proposed
The children’s commissioner for England, Anne Longfield, has recently proposed lowering the burden of proof required in cases of child sexual abuse, adding that the system that is currently in place is ‘not fit for purpose’.
Poppi Worthington
The commissioner’s suggestion comes after a ruling made by a family court judge with regards to the case of 13 month old Poppi Worthington. Based on the ‘civil standard of balance of probabilities’, the judge ruled that Poppy was sexually assaulted by her father before her death.
Poppi Iris Worthington died in December 2012 and her father, Paul Worthington, 46, and a 30-year-old woman were later arrested. However, the initial investigation – in which there were a number of police failures – ruled that the cause of death could not be determined and their bail was cancelled. A second police inquiry was then carried out in 2015.
Following this, it was decided by the by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) that Mr Worthington would not face criminal charges due to the lack of evidence needed to prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Child sex abuse: Difficulty obtaining & providing evidence
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Longfield explained:
“What this case really sharply illustrates is the difficulty there is in giving evidence in the case of child sex abuse, especially within the family.
“We know that the vast majority of cases aren’t reported in the first place, but even those that are reported, the vast majority don’t go to court because the evidence just isn’t there. And when looking at the burden of beyond reasonable doubt, it’s very sharply in contrast to the kind of ruling we saw from the judge last week, which is about balance of probability.”
