Expert psychiatric evidence about the general behavioural responses of child victims of sexual abuse — including evidence about common parental reactions to complaints — is admissible under s 108C of the Evidence Act 2008 (Vic) to rebut a defence case that a complainant's behaviour was counter-intuitive and inconsistent with the truth of allegations. However, expert evidence about a specific complainant's actual behaviour or a specific parent's actual reasons for rejecting a complaint invades the province of the jury and may face exclusion under s 137. The interaction between s 108C and s 388 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2009 remains an open question.
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