Jury trial in question in horrific child abuse case

When a highly experienced senior judge says she was so disturbed by a case that she had difficulty sleeping because of it, readers of the judgment should be warned. The judge concerned is Matilda Twomey-Woods, former Chief Justice of Seychelles, now a member of the island state’s highest court, the Court of Appeal. The case, involving a man in Seychelles convicted of murdering his three-year-old stepdaughter, is indeed horrific and simply reading of the crimes perpetrated against the little girl is distressing. But, writes Carmel Rickard in her A Matter of Justice column on the Legalbrief site, the case also raised important issues about jury trials and media coverage of the case, and gave the judge an opportunity for an urgent plea to the authorities to be more pro-active in protecting children, whom she called Seychelles’ ‘most vulnerable’.

A Matter of Justice

Seychelles judgment