Hamilton (a pseudonym) v. The Queen

Lower Court Judgment

27/04/2020 Supreme Court of New South Wales (Court of Criminal Appeal) (Macfarlan JA; Adamson and Beech-Jones JJ)

[2020] NSWCCA 80

Catchwords

Evidence – Tendency evidence – Jury directions – Where applicant charged with ten counts of aggravated indecent assault against three separate complainants – Where trial judge ruled evidence from complainants admissible but not cross-admissible for tendency purposes – Where anti-tendency direction not given – Where Court of Criminal Appeal held anti-tendency direction not necessary as applicant had not established risk of jury engaging in tendency reasoning – Where Court of Criminal Appeal found defence counsel made deliberate decision not to request anti-tendency direction to obtain forensic advantage – Whether anti-tendency direction generally be given in multi-complainant trial – Whether miscarriage of justice occasioned by failure to direct jury it was prohibited from using evidence led in support of each count as tendency evidence in support of other counts.