McKell v. The Queen

Lower Court Judgment

8/12/2017 Supreme Court of New South Wales (Court of Criminal Appeal) (Payne JA, Beech-Jones J, Fagan J)

[2017] NSWCCA 291

Catchwords

Criminal law – Trial by jury – Summing up – Where appellant intercepted two consignments between arrival in Sydney and transfer to freight forwarding agency – Where second consignment contained prohibited drug – Where appellant charged with importing commercial quantity of prohibited drug, conspiring to import commercial quantity of prohibited drug and dealing with proceeds of crime – Where appellant tried before jury – Where trial judge commented on evidence in summing up – Where appellant convicted of charges – Where majority of Court of Appeal dismissed appeal against convictions – Whether majority of Court of Appeal erred in failing to find trial judge’s summing up unbalanced and caused miscarriage of justice.

Short particulars