DP v Bishop Paul Bernard Bird [2021] VSC 453 (on AUSTLII) is a ruling in the course of a claim by DP in which he alleged that in 1971, when he was five or six years of age, he was assaulted by a Catholic priest Father Bryan Coffey (now deceased) at his parents’ home .
The ruling concerned the admissibility of tendency evidence from nine witnesses who also make allegations about Father Coffey’s conduct in the 1960s and 70s.
Although opposed by the defendant, the Court held that the terms of section 97 of the Evidence Act 2008 were satisfied and therefore the plaintiff was entitled to rely upon the evidence of the witnesses. At [9]:
Their evidence is patently relevant to a fact in issue: it has sufficiently specific and clear common threads relevant to Father Coffey’s state of mind and sexual conduct as demonstrated by the allegations of the nine witnesses. It is of significant probative value to DP’s case.