When exercising the discretion to grant or refuse a permanent stay after multiple hung juries, the court must not defer to the DPP's decision to prosecute, must give proper weight to the line of authority from other common law jurisdictions indicating that even a second retrial should be rare and exceptional, and must consider the discriminatory effect of pre-recorded evidence procedures which enable repeated retrials in sexual offence cases without the complainant having to give evidence again. The complainant's desire to proceed is not a weighty factor on the stay application itself.
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