Post by cenydd on Aug 7, 2013 9:35:03 GMT
The Crown Prosecution Service has criticised a barrister acting on its behalf for describing a 13-year-old sex abuse victim in court as "predatory".
Robert Colover also called the girl "sexually experienced". The CPS said his language had been "inappropriate".
Neil Wilson, 41, admitted abusing the girl at his home in Romford, London, and was given a suspended jail term.
The Attorney General's Office said the sentence had been drawn to its attention as "possibly unduly lenient".
Details of the case come as the head of the judiciary in England and Wales says a select pool of judges with specialist training will be created to handle complex child abuse cases, amid concerns at the way some child witnesses are treated in court by lawyers.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23597224
Quite shocking, really, for a barrister to even think that it's somehow reasonable or acceptable to describe a 13 year old victim in that manner in court when the legal age of consent is 16. Perhaps it is not just judges who need to be trained in such cases, but also the lawyers who act in them - it's appalling for a victim of abuse to be treated as though they were somehow 'responsible' for what happened in a court of law, especially when the law is quite clear that they could not have been, because they were not legally able to give their consent at all.