The author, Justice Ted Thomas, is a former Court of Appeal judge

This journal article is an address given by the Rt Hon E W Thomas to a Womensfest of the Auckland University Students Association in which he criticises the devaluation of sexual cases under the Evidence Act 2006. The author argues that complainants in sexual cases, who are more often than not women, are placed at a distinct disadvantage by a number of provisions in this recently passed legislation and that a positive trend towards redressing the courtroom imbalance for women who have complained that they have been sexually abused or raped has been arrested by this legislation. The two areas of the Act that are specifically criticised are Section 32, which provides that the fact-finder is not to be invited to infer guilt from the accused's silence before trial, and Subsection (2) of s 35, which renders previous statements of a witness inadmissible unless the statement is necessary to respond to a challenge to the witness's veracity or accuracy based on a previous inconsistent statement or a claim of recent invention. The author suggests that the legal profession, with the support of women's organisations, press for a review of the Evidence Act 2006 and recommends discrete provisions be made to it that redress the imbalances the Act has perpetuated and ensure justice for both victims and the accused in sexual cases.

New Zealand Law Journal (4) May 2008 :169-172