NSW child sex abuse victims will no longer have to endure the harrowing experience of facing their attacker in court under a new initiative to be rolled out state-wide.
Premier Dominic Perrottet has announced a pilot program allowing child victims to pre-record evidence, along with a range of other supports that will be expanded to every district court and police district in NSW.
"Child sexual abuse is one of the most heinous crimes and those children who have already endured the unimaginable should not have to suffer further at the hands of a justice system designed for adults," he told reporters on Wednesday.
Rose and Pippa Milthorpe, who survived sexual abuse as children, were regularly re-traumatised as their case went through the NSW court system.
There was an almost three-year delay between the time they reported the abuse and the hearing.
During the proceedings, they constantly ran into their abuser, and when they were cross-examined, they parents were not permitted to stay in the room.
Michelle Milthorpe said her daughters "were constantly traumatised by the very system we had been told would hold the perpetrator to account".
"This perpetuation of trauma has had a lasting impact on our children."
Mr Perrottet said the Milthorpe's story inspired him to expand the pilot program "so that no other child ever has to go through what Pippa and Rose went through".
The government will invest $64.3 million across four years to expand the program following an independent assessment by the University of NSW which found it reduced stress for children and resulted in better evidence.
As well as the option to pre-record evidence, the Child Sexual Offences Evidence Program (CSOEP) provides victims with intermediaries to help them during police interviews and spares them the trauma of seeing their attacker in court.
The CSOEP was first rolled out as a trial in 2016 for two court locations - the Sydney Downing Centre District Court and Newcastle District Court - and their corresponding police districts of South-West Metropolitan, Central Metropolitan and parts of the Northern district.
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