Presenting Sexual Abuse Cases

October 8, 2018

On Thursday, Oliver Saxby QC is to speak at a two-day conference on Child Sexual Exploitation being held for Senior Investigating Officers. Other speakers include senior Crown Prosecutors and experts in the area of sexual abuse. Oliver will be focussing on three trials he has been involved in recently, Operations Silk and Articulate (two 11-handed trials in which he led for the Crown, the first at Oxford Crown Court involving 5 complainants and the second at the Central Criminal Court involving 2 complainants) and Bodnar and others (an 8-handed trial at Canterbury Crown Court involving a single complainant in which he led for the first defendant and was the nominated cross-examiner on behalf of all 8 defendants). Silk and Articulate concluded with convictions. In Bodnar and others, all 8 defendants were acquitted at the end of the Crown’s case following successful submissions of no case to answer based on issues with the complainant’s testimony as revealed in cross-examination. Oliver will be addressing how best to present such complex, detailed and often variable cases – both from the perspective of the Crown and the defence.