Hearsay testimony occurs when an out-of-court statement is made by the witness and retold in court by another person. Hearsay testimony is heard in cases of child sexual abuse. Allowing hearsay testimony in child sexual abuse cases may spare children from the stress of testifying and facing their abuser in court. However, given the difficulties that interviewers may have in remembering details of their interviews, and the influence that later “gist” (essence) testimonies have on jurors, hearsay testimony should be carefully used and limited. The only way to reconcile the needs of the child without violating the rights of the defendant is to encourage interviewers to audiotape and/or videotape their original interviews with children in its totality. The taped pretrial interviews are still considered hearsay, but they may be the most “trustworthy” representation of a child’s description of an abusive event. References