The 85 reforms to the criminal justice system proposed by the child sex abuse royal commission will help to address the woeful conviction rate of accused paedophiles, victim advocates and legal experts say.

While much attention has been given to the commission’s recommendation that it be made a criminal offence for a clergy member to keep child abuse revealed during confession a secret, Sydney law school associate professor Arlie Loughnan said the proposed changes to rules around evidence and procedure would have a greater impact on convictions.

She highlighted the recommendations around tendency and coincidence evidence, which is evidence from people who say they have been separately abused by the same alleged offender in similar circumstances.

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For example, evidence may be included that shows the alleged perpetrator has been previously charged with or accused of similar offences in order to demonstrate to the court a tendency to commit certain offences or act in a particular way. It may also show the experience of separate victims is too similar and specific to be considered a coincidence.

Laws differ between states and territories about the admissibility of tendency and coincidence evidence, but the general view by courts is that such evidence is highly prejudicial against the accused. But the commission said its work over the past five years had found this was a “wrong” view to hold when it came to child sexual abuse cases.

The commission said laws should be changed to allow tendency and coincidence evidence to be admitted if it was relevant to an important evidentiary issue in the trial – such as whether the alleged abuse happened, and whether it was committed by the accused. This would also allow more joint trials to be held where multiple complainants make allegations of child sexual abuse against the same person.

“It is these reforms which, if implemented, are likely to have the most wide-ranging impact, with one of the significant impediments to successful convictions in this area being because of the problem survivors have in remembering exact times and dates due to trauma and time passed.

“The laws around tendency and coincidence as they are having quite a depressing effect on the chance of prosecution going ahead.”

In March, commission chair Justice Peter McClellan told a conference of lawyers in Sydney that in New South Wales between July 2012 and June 2016 the conviction rate for all offences, including matters finalised by a guilty plea, was 89%. For child sexual assault offences the conviction rate was 60%, much lower than the rate for crimes relating to robbery, assault and illicit drugs.

The Blue Knot Foundation provides support to abuse survivors and its president, Dr Cathy Kezelman, said the commission’s recommendations would take much of the burden off of victims.

The inclusion of legislative reform around admissibility of tendency and coincidence evidence “debunks prior beliefs that such evidence would be prejudicial as has not been found to be the case, and in fact might have led to unwarranted acquittals, and, in the past undermined credibility of complainants,” she said.

Guardian Australia contacted every state and territory attorney general department to ask if and how they would be adopting the commission’s recommendations around criminal justice reform.



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Tasmania’s acting attorney general, Matthew Groom, and NSW attorney general Mark Speakman reiterated their commitment to protecting children from sexual abuse and said their governments were still considering the recommendations.

In South Australia, laws regarding mandatory reporting of children at risk are already being changed, with the exemption that applied to ministers of religion being removed.

Under the new act, if a minister of religion, or an employee or volunteer in an organisation formed for religious or spiritual purposes, suspects on reasonable grounds that a child or young person is at risk, and that suspicion was formed in the course of the person’s employment, they must report this suspicion or face a penalty of $10,000.

Other state and territory governments were yet to respond.