Transcript
Detective-Sergeant Michelle Harris, who's been seconded from the Australian Federal Police, has been in PNG since 2013.
She is part of the Australia-PNG policing partnership working with local detectives on sexual crimes against children and, reviewing their briefs of evidence, she became aware of the low rates of conviction.
"For example, statistics from 2017, from just the court in Port Moresby, there was 1303 cases put before the court, and 78 percent of those were either struck-out, dismissed or withdrawn."
Ms Harris says the figures are likely worse beyond Port Moresby.
She says statement taking from children needs much greater emphasis just to get cases to trial.
Ms Harris is an organiser of the Pikinini Witness Workshops which are helping train prosecution teams involved in such cases.
Clinical psychologist Amie Frewen says the police and prosecution recognise they need to better understand children in order to work with them as witnesses.
"The thirst for knowledge is there around psychological aspects. So, how children are raised, stuff around how the brain works I guess and how memories are laid down."
Dr Frewen says police need to understand the risk to children while they unpack such memories.
"It's helping them understand what is the meaning of secondary victimisation. So some things within their organisation or their belief system that might accidentally, if you like, have a negative impact on the children as they do their job. It's a very sensitive area."
Dr Frewen says it's important for investigators to have empathy and to understand how best to phrase questions, but also to help children realise they're not in trouble.
"Parents will punish children if they disclose sexual abuse. And so there's this double-whammy I guess of having the trauma of what they've gone through - perhaps not even understanding what they've gone through - have disclosed it their parents, have been punished by their parents and then taken to the police."
Dr Frewen says perpetrators are almost always family members and mothers may fear the consequences of losing a major financial contributor.
The Pikinini Witness Workshop takes the prosecution team through the process of reporting a crime through to mock trials, outlining accepted best practice along the way.
New South Wales prosecutor Adam O'Connor works with PNG's Public Prosecutor in the Family and Sexual Offences Unit and is also involved in the training.
"Trying to improve the lawyer's advocacy so that the court is better assisted in these matters and the prosecutions are more successful. And also from the Office of the Public Solicitor's point of view, they're providing a better service to their clients in defending these matters. So improving the general advocacy in court."
The workshop trainers say the number of cases involving sexual offences against children and brought to trial in PNG have doubled in the last year.
