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The paper presents a brief overview of the legal position of a child witness in England and Scotland followed by a review of the latest psychological research on the reliability of child witnesses and difficulties they may encounter at trial. A surprising number of children are called to court each year to give evidence as victims of crime or as bystander witnesses. In civil law there are no special rules about the weight of children's evidence. But, since civil courts have been able to receive children's evidence as hearsay, appeal courts have stressed the need to treat such evidence with caution because it is hearsay, rather than because of any theory that children's evidence is unworthy of belief.