A court cannot reformulate the tendency on which the prosecution relies without giving the accused notice and an opportunity to be heard; doing so renders the tendency evidence inadmissible. Where a prosecution for making a false accusation suffers from a latent ambiguity as to which offence was falsely accused, the prosecution must be required to elect at a time when the accused can address the issue. The reverse Liberato principle does not assist where the complainant's evidence has been comprehensively rejected — neutral evidence cannot resuscitate a rejected account. The question whether magistrates will be required to state general principles of law in criminal reasons was left open but flagged as likely to arise.
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