Victims’ accounts of offending were “unshaken under cross-examination”

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/100972256/police-bungle-meant-child-abuse-victims-waited-20-years-for-justice

In a recently released decision the Appeal Court dismissed Ross’s appeal, saying the victims’ accounts of Ross’s offending were “unshaken under cross-examination” and the Crown’s case had been strong “notwithstanding the passage of time”.

On Friday, Police’s Wellington district manager investigations, detective inspector Shane Cotter, said Police apologised to the complainants for the unacceptable delay at the time the case was re-opened.

The girls’ case was among those discovered as part of Operation Scope, a national audit of child abuse files undertaken after police became aware of a backlog of child abuse files in Wairarapa.

Operation Scope examined 2752 current and completed files. Of those 186 were tasked for further examination.

“As a result of the audit and subsequent review a range of improvements have been made to police systems nationally across file management, audit policy, business document and performance management,” Cotter said.