The aggregation of circumstances of similarity between separate sexual offences — including the age and characteristics of complainants, the means of contact, the exploitation of vulnerability, the brazen nature of offending, persistence in the face of resistance, and post-offence threats and monitoring — may collectively satisfy the Pfennig/O'Keefe test for admissibility of propensity evidence even where individual features would not suffice. A pre-trial ruling to sever counts made at an aborted trial does not necessarily bind the judge at a subsequent trial, and implicit leave to reopen may be found from the prosecution's presentation of the full indictment.
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