FortiusQuoFidelius wrote:According to The Age the Sexual Crimes Squad consulted the Office of Public Prosecutions prior to charges beilg laid, so I would think there has to be a reasonable chance of conviction.
No, this is not solely the case. It is certainly not uncommon for law enforcement bodies to confer with their respective prosecution agencies for high profile cases. In this case, the re-investgation when completed would present all the evidence to the ODPP to assess more so because it has been handled so poorly by police independent advice is sort. Whether the charge is to progress to court is then dictated by the ODPP Prosecutional Discretion policy which is quite extensive.
However, this is very pertinent; (direct quote from the ODPP Policy)
In the great majority of cases involving allegations of sexual offences, the objective circumstances of the alleged offending are such that (subject to the application of the general prosecutorial criteria and the sufficiency of evidence) a prosecution should proceed. In most such instances, “the public interest” will strongly suggest that the prosecution should proceed, as doing so will not only tend to uphold the rule of law, but will also validate and promote the welfare of the victim, and will permit a Court (in the event of a conviction being sustained) to sentence the offender, and thus ensure that the various purposes of sentencing (such as punishment, denunciation, deterrence, rehabilitation, and so on) are achieved.
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Extremely clear stance the ODPP have in relation to the matters.
Therefore my point is that the prospect of securing a conviction is not essential to progress such charges when taking into consideration the last paragraph. The fact that a complaint has been made, believe it or not, can be enough for a case to proceed especially if the other party admits to having sex. Then the issue comes down to consent and it really falls into the hands of a jury to decide.
