One of the six commissioners who oversaw the landmark child sexual abuse royal commission has criticised defence lawyers who “mischievously” attack the credibility of abuse victims.



Robert Fitzgerald said that the country’s criminal justice system has previously favoured alleged abusers, and even today “the pendulum has barely moved”.



He criticised defence lawyers for attacking the credibility of survivors over the length of time they took to report abuse.

“You will hear defence counsels still get up in courts today and say, mischievously in my view, that we should attack the credibility of victims because they did not come forward at the time of the abuse,” the former commissioner said in Sydney on Friday.



“What we saw is the destruction of the credibility of individuals. That goes against what we now know to be the way in which abuse victims both disclose, and in fact the effects of, the abuse.”



He said the evidence was “overwhelming” that historically victims often didn’t come forward until years later.



Fitzgerald, who is also a former commercial lawyer and productivity commissioner, also took aim at the justice system’s “appalling process” of splitting sexual abuse trials rather than hearing cases involving multiple victims as one case.

“It is a shocking thing that the legal profession continues to support that in parts,” he said.



Fitzgerald said many abuse victims were reluctant to come forward due to how traumatising a trial could be.



“Why would you come forward if the chances of even getting to the courtroom door are so low?” he said.



“Then you’re going to go through this terrible court process with a more likely than not outcome that it’s going to be acquitted.”



While acknowledging there had been some improvements in Australia’s judicial system, he said there was still a long way to go.



“People say to me, church people, ‘Oh the pendulum has swung’ [but] that’s just not true,” he said. “The pendulum has barely moved and the pendulum has very much favoured the accused.”