The legal case is over.

Sigh. After all that preparation, anxiety, making babysitting arrangements and planning to go to court - the case is off, and not in a good way.

This is the child abuse case that I saw more than four years ago. The girl was only four years old at the time. The alleged abuser fled interstate, twice, and had to be brought back for trial, plus numerous legal delays. All in all, it has taken over four years to bring this case to trial, so she is now eight years old. The plan was for a closed court - so at least none of her school friends would hear about it.

I was a junior doctor at the time, and this would have been my first time testifying in a jury trial, so I was little anxious. Still, I was keen to try to help this girl get some resolution and justice, if at all possible. I did my preparation, had copies of all my notes and planned what to wear. I had babysitters lined up and was all ready to go - then the afternoon before I got a call from the police officer involved that the case was off.

Apparently under cross-examination, four years later, regarding events which happened to her when she was four years old, the girl was unable to give sufficient evidence to bring a conviction. Apparently, when lead along a line of questioning, she agreed that it was possible that she dreamed it all. The case collapsed on the spot, as there was never any physical evidence - the case swung entirely on her testimony, both direct and indirect (via what she said to me that night when she came to hospital).

So this is the justice system. Four years after the fact she is unable to say "beyond reasonable doubt" that when she was four she was assaulted, and despite his prior convictions there is no other proof. So he walks free. His delaying tactics have won the case for him. She has been waiting for four years to hear that her evidence isn't good enough to be believed.

I feel sick.