A child victim’s delay in reporting sexual abuse does not change their report’s credibility, the California Court of Appeal ruled April 15.
The ruling affirms the decision of a Riverside judge to allow a girl’s report of consistent sexual abuse by a family friend between 2006 and 2008.
The girl, who was 5 when the abuse began, and her sister, who was 4, were abused by a family friend who lived in their Palm Desert apartment. At trial, the sisters recounted multiple instances of penetrative sex that occurred even while their father was home.
The sexual abuse went undisclosed until 2016, when the girl told her high school friends.
