On appeal, the question of admissibility of evidence is assessed de novo by the Court of Appeal based on the whole of the material, and is not governed by the House v The King principles applicable to discretionary decisions. Where prior criminal history is admitted for a legitimate purpose such as motive, a direction limiting its use to 'context' is inadequate without an explicit anti-propensity warning, though the absence of such a warning will not necessarily cause a substantial miscarriage of justice where conviction was inevitable and defence counsel did not take exception.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 4 later cases that cite this judgment.