Social context evidence about domestic violence is not automatically admissible in criminal proceedings; it must satisfy the ordinary requirements for expert opinion evidence including that it is based on specialised knowledge and goes beyond common knowledge. A domestic violence risk assessment tool (such as the 'Danger Assessment') may lack sufficient scientific basis for use in court where it was developed for clinical rather than forensic purposes. Where the appellant's own evidence and psychiatric evidence adequately convey the dynamics of the abusive relationship to the jury, exclusion of additional social context evidence from a social worker does not occasion a miscarriage of justice. A sentence of 4 years' immediate imprisonment for manslaughter on the basis of excessive self-defence, where the offender killed an abusive spouse, is within the range open to a sentencing judge notwithstanding significant mitigating factors.
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