In assessing whether a response was reasonable under s 421 of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW), the full history of domestic violence — including sustained verbal abuse, prior physical assaults, and the escalating pattern of threats — is integral to the assessment of the circumstances as perceived by the accused, and cannot be divorced from the events of the immediate confrontation. Where intercepted communications provide an incontrovertible record of the accused's state of mind and the deceased's threats, the jury's advantage in seeing witnesses may be diminished, and the appellate court may be in a comparable position to assess the evidence. The Crown's onus to disprove self-defence beyond reasonable doubt under s 419 requires proof that the response was not reasonable — not merely that a better response was available.
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