The Director of Public Prosecutions v. Benjamin Roder (a pseudonym)
Case No.
Case no M85/2023
Case Information
Lower Court Judgment
31/10/2023 Supreme Court of Victoria (Court of Appeal) (Priest, Niall & Taylor JJA)
Catchwords
Evidence – Tendency evidence – Standard of proof – Where respondent is to be tried in County Court of Victoria on indictment charging him with 27 sexual offences against two sons of his former domestic partner – Where prosecution gave notice of intention to adduce tendency evidence that respondent had tendency to have improper sexual interest in stepchildren and tendency to act in particular ways towards them – Where trial judge ruled jury should be directed that "the charged acts must be proved beyond reasonable doubt" before they could be used as tendency evidence – Where Court of Appeal refused leave to appeal from trial judge's decision – Whether Court of Appeal erred in upholding interlocutory decision of County Court of Victoria on basis that where charged act relied upon as evidence to prove tendency, jury should be directed that charged act must be proved beyond reasonable doubt before it can be so used – Whether such direction prohibited by s 61 of Jury Directions Act 2015 (Vic).
Documents*
28/11/2023 Application for special leave to appeal
07/12/2023 Hearing (Gordon J, Canberra by remote connection)
22/01/2024 Written submissions (Applicant)
22/01/2024 Chronology (Applicant)
14/02/2024 Written submissions (Respondent)
26/02/2024 Reply
13/03/2024 Hearing (Full Court, Canberra) (Audio-visual recording)
13/03/2024 Outline of oral argument (Applicant)
13/03/2024 Outline of oral argument (Respondent)
17/04/2024 Judgment (Judgment summary)