The man was convicted in 1998 of two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 and sentenced to five years in jail. The SJC correctly ruled that testimony should not have been allowed, since there was no way to determine the reliability of the girl's sleep talk. Indeed, even the meaning of the girl's utterance is uncertain. What the outcome of the retrial will be also is in doubt. In the 1998 trial, the jury found the girls' claims about other alleged incidents not sufficiently credible to support a guilty verdict.
Child molestation is an abhorrent crime, warranting serious punishment.
That makes it all the more important for the courts to extend fair and equitable treatment to accuser and accused alike. To do otherwise would devalue our system of justice.