Ewing

The defendant was charged with the offense denounced by section 288 of the Penal Code, it being alleged that he committed certain lewd and lascivious acts •upon the body of one Plorence Wells, a female child of the age of six years. He was tried and convicted. Motion for a new trial was made and denied, and this is an appeal from the judgment and from the order denying the motion.

It is contended that there is no evidence in the record tending to show the commission of the crime charged or of any other crime, except the unsworn and hearsay declaration of the prosecutrix, who was not permitted to testify at the trial, she having been held incompetent after an exhaustive examination by the trial judge by reason of her inability to receive just impressions of facts or to relate them truly.

A_t the outset it may be said that there is no direct evidence of the commission of the offense. Rigorous proof, however, of the corpus delicti in cases of this character is sometimes unattainable, and it is not necessary that the offense should be proved by direct and positive testimony. Such crimes are committed in secrecy, and tribunals must often act upon such indications of an offense as the…