ABSTRACT
The language used in criminal courtrooms is at best strange to the uninitiated. The armoury of language strategies deployed during cross-examination is formidable, so much so that participants and observers often comment: ‘I can't remember what he said … but it didn't sound right.’ To not ‘get it right’ when the witnesses are children, who themselves are the alleged victims of sexual assault, is to be missing something in the administration of justice.
