A jury should never be asked to go beyond the evidence on which both parties rely to establish or refute a motive to lie and to consider the question 'Why would she lie?'; such a question, whether asked by the Crown prosecutor or the trial judge, impermissibly invites the jury to accept the complainant's evidence unless the accused provides a positive answer. Where a co-accused has objected to a misdirection at trial, giving the judge the opportunity to correct the error, r 4 of the Criminal Appeal Rules will not be applied technically to deny the non-objecting accused the right to appeal the uncorrected error.
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