Published
July 22, 2026Victorian sexual offence law was rebuilt twice within a decade — structurally in the 2015–2016 reforms, and substantively by the affirmative consent amendments that took effect on 30 July 2023. Anyone facing an allegation, and anyone advising them, needs to understand that the law now in force is materially different from what most non-specialists remember.
Consent is defined as free and voluntary agreement, and the Crimes Act 1958 sets out an extensive list of circumstances in which consent is absent — including force and fear, but extending to deceptions and to the non-consensual removal or tampering with a condom. The most consequential change is to reasonable belief: since July 2023, an accused’s belief in consent cannot be reasonable unless the accused said or did something to find out whether the other person consented. The inquiry at trial is now directed as much at the accused’s conduct as at the complainant’s.
The trial environment is equally distinctive. Sexual offence proceedings carry their own procedural regime: complainants ordinarily give evidence by alternative arrangements, cross-examination is regulated, prior sexual history is inadmissible without leave, confidential communications are protected, and juries receive directions designed to address misconceptions about how complainants behave. These rules are not peripheral — they define what a defence can and cannot do, and a defence built without close command of them fails before it begins.
Two practical observations from conducting these matters. First, they are document-heavy long before they are witness-heavy: telephone content, messages, and the parties’ communications before and after the alleged events are usually the most important evidence in the case, and their preservation and analysis should begin immediately. Second, the period between complaint and charge is not dead time. Decisions made then — including whether to be interviewed — shape the whole proceeding, and they are decisions on which advice should be obtained before, not after.
Allegations of this kind place everything a person has built at risk. The firm conducts them with the seriousness, and the discretion, that reality requires.
