A bailiff's communication with a jury foreman about sentencing as a means of resolving disagreement is an unauthorised communication that raises a reasonable suspicion about the fairness of the trial, notwithstanding that the bailiff is literally excepted from the prohibition in s 621 of the Criminal Code (Qld). The proviso to s 668E(1) cannot save convictions where the communication was by its nature liable to affect the outcome and trenched upon the right to a fair trial in a fundamental respect. The proviso in s 621 was not intended to immunise proceedings from challenge where a contravention is discovered only after verdict.
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