Features commonly associated with child sexual offending — such as offending against female children, brazenness, and offending in the offender's home — do not of themselves carry the strong degree of probative force required by the common law test for admissibility of similar fact evidence under [name withheld]. Trial judges must critically analyse whether alleged similarities are actually supported by the evidence and must be wary of the potentially illusory force of a long list of alleged similarities. The common law threshold requires features of such a strong degree of similarity, distinctiveness, underlying unity or connection that their probative force compels the conclusion there is no reasonable view consistent with the innocence of the accused — a more demanding standard than the 'significant probative value' threshold under uniform evidence legislation.
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