I'm constructing a Hibernate Criterion, using a subselect as follows

DetachedCriteria subselect =
    DetachedCriteria.forClass(NhmCode.class, "sub"); // the subselect selecting the maximum 'validFrom'
subselect.add(Restrictions.le("validFrom", new Date())); // it should be in the past (null needs handling here)
subselect.add(Property.forName("sub.lifeCycle").eqProperty("this.id")); // join to owning entity
subselect.setProjection(Projections.max("validFrom"));  // we are only interested in the maximum validFrom

Conjunction resultCriterion = Restrictions.conjunction();
resultCriterion.add(Restrictions.ilike(property, value)); // I have other Restrictions as well
resultCriterion.add(Property.forName("validFrom").eq(subselect)); // this fails when validFrom and the subselect return NULL

return resultCriterion;

It works ok so far, but the restriction on the last line before the return statement is false when validFrom and subselect result in NULL.

What I need is a version which handles this case as true. Possibly by applying a NVL or coalesce or similar.

How do I do this?