R v Kirkham

In the matter of R v Kirkham, the defendant faced charges related to his tendency to have a sexual interest in young children and his tendency to act on such interest by maintaining unlawful sexual relationships. The dispute centred around the admissibility of expert evidence regarding the defendant's psychological profile and its relevance to the charges. The case was heard by the Supreme Court of Victoria.

The primary legal issue the court needed to address was whether the proposed expert evidence was admissible under the relevant sections of the Evidence Act. The court had to consider whether the expert's literature review and the reasons for the complainant's delay in reporting the incidents were relevant and could assist the tribunal of fact in determining the disputed facts. The court also needed to decide if the expert had the necessary expertise to provide an opinion on the defendant's psychological profile.

The court found that the expert's literature review did not meet the standard of reliability required to be considered as evidence. The court held that the proposed expert evidence was not relevant to the charges and, therefore, could not assist the tribunal of fact in determining the disputed facts. Furthermore, the court found that the reasons for the complainant's delay in reporting the incidents were not relevant to the defendant's tendency to have a sexual interest in young children or to act on such interest. As a result, the court declined to admit the evidence. The court concluded that the evidence did not meet the requirements set out in the Evidence Act and was not relevant to the charges against the defendant. The court also found that the expert did not have the necessary expertise to provide an opinion on the defendant's psychological profile.