A trial judge must give at minimum a Zoneff-type direction on the use of an accused's lies to police where the prosecution comes close to inviting the jury to infer guilt from those lies, even where the prosecution does not expressly contend the lies were told out of consciousness of guilt. The failure of defence counsel to seek such a direction does not preclude a finding of miscarriage of justice, particularly where the failure appears attributable to inexperience rather than forensic strategy. The distinction between murder (intent to cause grievous bodily harm) and manslaughter in a single-stab-wound case is one on which reasonable juries may differ, making non-directions on lies particularly prejudicial.
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