Where trials are severed, evidence of flight may be rendered inadmissible as consciousness of guilt evidence if the competing explanation for the flight arises from the severed charges and cannot be placed before the jury. The Dyers v The Queen principle regarding failure to call witnesses does not apply where the prosecution's case is that the uncalled witness does not exist and the accused's evidence is fabricated. When sentencing under s 18A for multiple offences, the R v Major approach of aggregating notional individual sentences is inappropriate where the total far exceeds the defendant's life expectancy; in such cases the court should make an overall assessment of the seriousness of the total offending.
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