The Court of Appeal allowed the appeal against conviction, set aside convictions on counts 2 to 12, and ordered a new trial, while dismissing both the defendant's sentence appeal and the Attorney-General's appeal against sentence. The case addressed whether similar fact evidence (a co-accused mother's guilty plea for similar injuries to an older child) was admissible to rebut an accident defence, the admissibility of a co-accused's confession at joint trial where the Crown did not contend that co-accused was guilty, whether the Crown was bound by its conduct at an earlier sentencing hearing (issue estoppel), and whether a judge's communication of directions to a deliberating jury through a bailiff rather than in open court contravened ss 617 and 620 of the Criminal Code (Qld) so as to produce a mistrial.
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