Covert tape-recording of confessional statements by agents of the State, without caution and employing subterfuge, does not necessarily require exclusion where the suspect was not in custody, the initial confession was voluntary, and the recording was used to test the authenticity of an already-made confession. A fact not being an element of the offence need not be proved beyond reasonable doubt unless it is an indispensable link in a chain of sequential reasoning leading to guilt; motive that is merely a strand in a cable of circumstantial evidence need not be so proved. A deliberate forensic choice by defence counsel not to cross-examine or call evidence on a particular issue does not constitute incompetence giving rise to a miscarriage of justice.
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