The phrase 'the person reasonably believes' in s 9AG(2) of the Crimes Act 1958 (Vic) requires assessment by reference to a reasonable person possessing the personal characteristics of the accused that might have affected the accused's appreciation of the circumstances. This is a mixed objective-subjective test, not a purely objective 'reasonable person' test. The NSW Court of Criminal Appeal's purely objective construction of the equivalent Commonwealth provision in R v Oblach was not followed. The subsequent enactment of s 322O, which separated the 'reasonable response' element from the belief elements, confirms that the former s 9AG(2) contained a subjective component in all three limbs.
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