Under s 306Y of the Criminal Procedure Act 1986 (NSW), it will not be in the interests of justice to exclude a JIRT interview recording where the issues of reliability arising from the manner of interviewing would arise at trial regardless of how the evidence in chief is given, and where any undue prejudice can be adequately addressed by jury warnings. A trial judge's directions regarding the potential unreliability of a child complainant's JIRT interview evidence are adequate where the judge draws the jury's attention to the features of the interview process that may affect reliability, warns that the evidence may be unreliable, and directs the jury to exercise appropriate caution — even where the judge refers to matters raised in defence counsel's submissions rather than independently articulating the reasons for unreliability, provided the direction carries the authority of the court. The assessment of the effect of interviewing techniques on the reliability of a child's evidence is within the ordinary competence of a jury.
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