A trial judge's reference to a State witness as an 'accomplice' in the course of giving a warning about the witness's evidence does not necessarily occasion a miscarriage of justice, particularly where the characterisation accurately reflects the witness's own evidence and the summing up is otherwise fair. Whether a direction is required that a co-offender's guilty plea is not evidence against the accused depends on the circumstances, including whether there is a perceptible risk of impermissible reasoning by the jury; no such direction is required where the plea was introduced by defence counsel for tactical reasons and the State did not rely on it as part of its case.
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