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Show Fine line required in handling sex abuse trial And how about the limits of media Newspapers cannot be kept out of the courtmCVera these cases the rules are, for the most imposed. But what should and what shoiS?1, I printed about testimony in such cases? nl W 1 In the past, it has been standard to do mw would identify the victims of such abuse But i 8 this case some newspapers have identified th ' as readily as if they had named the ll-vear-nSu' ' 9-year-old girl who took the stand. l."01 boyj. Cases like these must be handled straight f ' ' by the courts and the press, if society is goin?? i with the problem of child sexual abuse. But we must remember that a charge is I viction and that innocence, not guilt, is the prLl of our judicial system unless it is proved n?P!,: ' beyond a reasonable doubt. othe ij Everyone involved in the upcoming cases mnct , '' fine Hne that win protect the rightf ofS , well as the children who will be making the accusal J P Over the next few months, and possibly years, the north Utah County area is going to be the focus of intense in-tense and sensational media attention. The subject is child sexual abuse -- and the focus of attention will be a series of trials aimed at resolving accusations that for three or four years a group of 20 to 40 adults sexually abused a group of 20 neighborhood children in Lehi. That kind of accusation in a courtroom, where it can be quoted and reported without fear of legal ramifications, would get attention anywhere. Place the alleged crime in a small Utah community like Lehi, and interest increases dramatically. There is no good way to handle accusations of this type in public, and our judicial system is a public one. That's one of the reasons child sexual abuse has remained one of the few unmentionable crimes in our society. But the current trend is to mention the unmentionable, un-mentionable, with the hope that bringing this type of crime and anti-social behavior into public view will help to bring an end to such practices. And that means the current trial of Alan Hadfield, and possible subsequent trials related to it, will be the subject of intense interest -- both by law enforcement personnel and the general public. There are so many questions about the case. Certainly, the numbers mentioned in the Lehi case are unimaginable. One psychiatrist testified Monday that he believes 20 to 40 adults were involved in sexually abusing up to 20 children in a neighborhood. Is that possible? And what about the children? Should children who have already been abused beyond all reason be expected ex-pected to take the stand and be subjected to another kind of abuse? In the preliminary hearing the two youngsters who testified were not required to undergo the type of cross-examination cross-examination that might occur in an actual trial, but it still seemed extraordinarily brutal to force them to answer some of the questions that would ordinarily be standard in a normal trial. |