A complainant's demonstrated lie on a collateral matter (here, denial of authorship of Facebook messages) does not necessarily render a conviction unsafe where there is an obvious explanation for the lie unrelated to the charged conduct, and the falsity was fully exposed before the jury. The question whether such a lie should create reasonable doubt about the complainant's evidence on the charged conduct is a quintessential jury question. Acquittals on other counts involving the same complainant do not establish inconsistency where there is a rational explanation for the different verdicts, such as the presence of contradictory or uncorroborated evidence specific to the acquitted charges.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 24 later cases that cite this judgment.
3 of the 24 citing cases carry a classified treatment. How each court treated it is available to signed-in members.