HARTFORD — The Connecticut Supreme Court says sexual assault victims still need protection from the potential bias of jurors who question the credibility of victims who delay reporting the allegations.
The high court on Friday unanimously rejected a sexual assault convict’s request to scrap a long-standing legal doctrine that allows witnesses to testify that the victims told them about the sexual assaults before they were reported to police. The doctrine is an exception to rules barring hearsay.
The cour did modify the doctrine to better protect defendants from potential bias caused by that witness testimony.
The convict is serving a 25-year prison sentence for sexually assaulting his daughter numerous times in the early 2000s, from the time she was 6 until she was 9. She didn’t report the abuse until 2009.
