It can happen anytime the prosecutor decides to “win at all costs.” Remember in the late 1980s to 1990s, the US justice system went after child care operators. More than a few people were put in jail for some of the preposterous allegation of child abuse. Some spent years and years in jail on trumped up charges.
Yes, the 'wave' of media leading to the public opinion that enables prosecutions on such beliefs as young children do not lie about such matters. The fact that 'advocates' filled malleable minds with frequently preposterous images was left hidden/unchallengeable from the defense lawyers. Would the Waco Massacre still have happened if Janet Reno, a third choice for US Attorney General by Bill Clinton, not have come to fame as one of those prosecutors?
I know little about this Australian case but I do know how these opinion waves can swamp considered opinion by even the most judicious. In America it went from the Salem Witch Trials to the Nisei Internments to these aforementioned daycare prosecutions and almost always 20/20 hindsight sees the injustices imposed.