A trial judge must direct the jury that no adverse inference can be drawn from an accused's pre-trial silence, even where defence counsel does not request such a direction, if the summing up or cross-examination has raised the impermissible inference. The Petty principle protects an accused who makes some responses to police but does not advance the exculpatory version later relied on at trial, so long as the accused does not put forward a conflicting story at trial.
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