Where a child complainant's evidence of serious abuse describes conduct that would be expected to produce corroborative evidence (signs of habitation, physical effects, eye witness awareness), the cumulative absence of such corroboration, combined with the improbability of the account and denials by persons who would have been aware of the conduct, may render a guilty verdict unreasonable even though the complainant's evidence is not inherently impossible. The case also confirms that where a conviction on a multi-particular count is upheld but one particular is not supported by the evidence, the court cannot vary the sentence in the absence of an appeal against sentence.
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