Where a child complainant gives irreconcilably inconsistent accounts of alleged sexual offending — particularly where the account at trial expressly rejects the conduct charged in the indictment — the verdicts cannot be supported and must be set aside, notwithstanding that discrepancies in child evidence are ordinarily a matter for the jury. Trial judges must determine a child's competency to give sworn evidence by reference to the statutory test in s 9B(2) of the Evidence Act 1977 (Qld), not the common law test, and must comply with s 9B(3) by explaining the duty of speaking the truth in terms the child can understand; failure to do so renders the evidence inadmissible.
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