Em v The Queen

Criminal law – Evidence - Confessions and admissions - Discretionary grounds for exclusion - Unfairness discretion - Police covertly recorded a conversation with the appellant in a park - Appellant made certain admissions - Appellant not aware that he was being recorded - Appellant under mistaken belief that admissions to police could only be used against him in criminal proceedings if recorded electronically - Police deliberately omitted the second part of the standard caution, namely that anything said or done by the appellant could be recorded and used as evidence in court - Interpretation of s 90 of the Evidence Act 1995 (NSW) - Whether admitting evidence of admissions in these circumstances was unfair - Reliability of the admissions - Whether right to silence impugned - Whether jury should have been warned by the trial judge that an admission made in these circumstances may be unreliable.

Words and phrases – "unfair".

Evidence Act 1995 (NSW) – ss 84, 85, 90, 137, 138.