O'Dea v. The State of Western Australia
Case No.
P53/2021
Case Information
Lower Court Judgment
13/04/2021 Supreme Court of Western Australia (Court of Appeal) (Buss P, Mazza and Vaughan JJA)
Catchwords
Criminal law – Joint liability – Acting in concert – Where appellant and co-accused stood trial on one count of doing grievous bodily harm with intent to do grievous bodily harm contrary to s 294(1) of the Criminal Code (WA) – Where appellant and co-accused alleged jointly criminally responsible – Where trial judge gave jury handout, relevantly describing circumstances in which two accused may be criminally responsible as "joint principals" under s 7(a) of Code – Where appellant was convicted but co-accused discharged with jury unable to reach verdict – Where Court of Appeal held criminal responsibility under s 7(a) of Code extended to cases where several persons are "acting in concert" – Whether appellant and co-accused can be criminally liable as joint principals in circumstances where the acts of co-accused were not proved unlawful – Whether trial judge was required to direct jury that "acting in concert" requires two accused to have reached an understanding or arrangement amounting to agreement to commit crime.
Documents*
03/12/2021 Hearing (SLA, Canberra by video-connection)
15/12/2021 Notice of appeal
21/01/2022 Written submissions (Appellant)
21/01/2022 Chronology (Appellant)
18/02/2022 Written submissions (Respondent)
11/03/2022 Reply
04/05/2022 Hearing (Full Court, Canberra) (Audio-visual recording)
04/05/2022 Outline of oral argument (Appellant)
04/05/2022 Outline of oral argument (Respondent)
10/08/2022 Judgment (Judgment summary)