George v. The State of Western Australia
Case No.
P45/2020
Case Information
Lower Court Judgment
01/09/2020 Supreme Court of Western Australia (Court of Appeal) (Quinlan CJ, Mazza and Mitchell JJA)
Catchwords
Criminal law – Jury directions – Right to silence – Where applicant charged with indecently dealing with child between ages 13 and 16 years, contrary to s 321(4) of Criminal Code (WA) – Where prosecution adduced evidence of investigating police officer, who gave evidence of electronic record of interview in which appellant denied offences and gave alternative account, and tendered record of interview – Where applicant did not give or adduce any evidence at trial – Where applicant’s submissions were prosecution had not proved beyond reasonable doubt all elements of offence – Where trial judge failed to warn jury that applicant’s silence could not be used as evidence against him, does not constitute admission, could not be used to fill gaps in prosecution’s evidence and could not be used as a make-weight in assessing whether prosecution has proved its case beyond reasonable doubt (Azzopardi direction) – Where majority of WA Court of Appeal held absence of Azzopardi direction not miscarriage of justice – Whether miscarriage of justice occurred because of absence of Azzopardi direction.
Documents*
28/09/2020 Application for special leave to appeal
20/05/2021 Hearing (SLA, Canberra)
24/06/2021 Written submissions (Applicant)
24/06/2021 Chronology (Applicant)
21/07/2021 Written submissions (Respondent)
12/08/2021 Reply
08/12/2021 Hearing (Full Court, Canberra) (including pronouncement of orders) (Audio-visual recording)
08/12/2021 Outline of oral argument (Applicant)
08/12/2021 Outline of oral argument (Respondent)