Commonwealth v. McCaffrey

A jury convicted P. Christopher McCaffrey of “unnatural sexual intercourse” with his daughter, a child under the age of sixteen. We agree with McCaffrey that the testimony of the fresh complaint witness (the child’s mother and McCaffrey’s estranged wife) exceeded the permissible bounds of such testimony, to his prejudice, and accordingly reverse the judgment of conviction.

The child, Erin (a pseudonym), who was five years old at the time of trial, testified on direct examination that, when she was two, McCaffrey had inserted his finger into her vagina. On cross-examination, Erin admitted that…