The principle in Palmer v The Queen, prohibiting questions of the form 'why would the complainant lie', applies to police interviews and not only to cross-examination at trial. Police officers who ask such questions risk having those questions and answers edited out or the entire interview excluded. A video record of interview containing only denials and self-serving statements (no admissions) is irrelevant and inadmissible even when tendered by the prosecution with defence consent, because prior self-serving statements are not admissible as evidence of the truth of their contents. A court may revisit and reverse an earlier ruling admitting evidence at any stage of the trial, including in the course of delivering reasons for decision.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 9 later cases that cite this judgment.
2 of the 9 citing cases carry a classified treatment. How each court treated it is available to signed-in members.