Where the only evidence of murderous intent is post-offence conduct (such as dismemberment and disposal of a body) and lies, and the only direct evidence of the circumstances of death points at its highest to unlawful and dangerous act manslaughter, a murder conviction may be unsafe and unsatisfactory even though the trial judge was correct to leave murder to the jury. The accused's failure to give evidence cannot be used as a make-weight to sustain the inference of murderous intent where the competing inferences of murder and manslaughter are both rationally available from the same evidence.
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