I recently read a transcript of the cross-examination of the complainant in a rape trial. Sensitive yet methodical, moving from topic to topic and from document to document, I followed the defence counsel constructing clear and to-the-point questions to draw out important information without gratuitously upsetting or humiliating the witness, firmly yet politely exposing flaws and contradictions in her account.
This is not a skill learnt overnight, nor is it even a skill that all advocates possess, because trials of sexual assault and rape are highly specialised work. So specialised, in fact, that in criminal proceedings the lawyers and judges must be specially “ticketed” before being let loose on this sort of case, which often involves high stakes and highly vulnerable witnesses (as the sad suicides of a number of rape complainants in recent years reminds us).
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