What the Pell case illustrates is this: if you’re a victim of sexual violence, the law’s requirement of proof beyond reasonable doubt means that a conviction is very unlikely, so you may wisely choose to not subject yourself to the retraumatisation a trial will involve.

Consequently, until the legal system undergoes structural reform that rebalances the scales in cases of sexual violence, we should not expect victims to step forward nor blame them when they don’t.