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Rape trials and sexual history evidence : reforming the law on third party evidence.

McGlynn, Clare (2017) 'Rape trials and sexual history evidence : reforming the law on third party evidence.', Journal of criminal law., 81 (5). pp. 367-392.

Abstract

Despite repeated legislative attempts to restrict the use of sexual history evidence in rape trials, it continues to be admitted in many cases, causing considerable debate and leading to further attempts to reform the law. In this light, this article examines afresh the admissibility of sexual history evidence in rape trials. It focuses particularly on evidence relating to persons other than the accused (third-party evidence), following the recent controversial judgment of the Court of Appeal in R v Ched Evans where such evidence was introduced. The justifications for restricting sexual history evidence are considered, as well as research data on how often it is being used. Following an analysis of the current law, the article concludes that urgent reform is needed and a number of law reform options are examined.

Item Type:Article
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Full text:(VoR) Version of Record
Available under License - Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial.
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Status:Peer-reviewed
Publisher Web site:https://doi.org/10.1177/0022018317728824
Publisher statement:This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
Date accepted:17 July 2017
Date deposited:18 July 2017
Date of first online publication:08 September 2017
Date first made open access:13 September 2017

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