The investigative interview forms the evidential pillar in cases of adult sexual assault. Yet, the police have been criticised for undermining the strength of evidence in these cases and re-victimising complainants. Broader research suggests that this may be because the Cognitive Interview (CI) – the major framework used by police to interview adults including those alleging sexual assault – does not align entirely with the characteristics of sexual assault cases. To address these criticisms, I adapted a child interviewing framework for use with adult complainants of sexual assault. I did so by adopting a multistage mixed-method approach. Stage one identified components in the CI that are (or are not) meeting the needs of stakeholders (i.e., investigators, prosecutors, and victims) and considered how frameworks used with children may be applied with adults. The latter question was guided by studies showing that child interviewing researchers have successfully found ways to enhance the evidential quality of children’s accounts whilst tending to their emotional needs. Stage two experimentally tested the utility of discrete elements of the child interviewing framework identified as holding promise with adults and compared the two frameworks in the laboratory prior to future implementation of the new framework in field settings. [...]