A genuine belief in consent, even if unreasonable, is inconsistent with awareness of the possibility of no consent and necessarily negates the fourth element of rape. The proviso to s 568(1) of the Crimes Act 1958 will not save a conviction where the misdirection went to a central issue and it is not clear the misdirection could not have been operative in the verdict. A prior workplace relationship between a juror and the accused, where the parties had not seen each other for almost a decade and there was no evidence of ongoing antipathy, does not give rise to a reasonable apprehension of bias.
The full text is available to signed-in members.