Where a circumstantial case depends on relatively few incriminating facts, the trial judge must identify for the jury the crucial intermediate facts and direct that if the jury regards any particular fact as an indispensable link in the chain of proof, that fact must be proved beyond reasonable doubt. The trial judge should consider whether the jury might reasonably regard certain facts as intermediate facts, even if the judge does not personally regard them in that light. Evidence of intravenous drug use at the time of arrest is irrelevant to establishing drug use, motive, or analgesic effect at the time of an offence committed four months earlier, and its admission without discharge of the jury or adequate direction constitutes a miscarriage of justice.
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