Where inadmissible hearsay evidence is admitted without objection by defence counsel and there is no objective forensic reason for the failure to object, a miscarriage of justice will not be established if the trial judge's directions to the jury are sufficient to overcome the risk of prejudice. A clear, emphatic and unequivocal direction that there is no evidence of the content of a conversation effectively neutralises the prejudicial effect of hearsay evidence about that conversation. The proviso in s 30(4) of the Criminal Appeals Act 2004 (WA) will not be applied where the appellate court is not satisfied that the inadmissible evidence would not have had any significance in determining the verdict, even where the prosecution case was otherwise strong.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 6 later cases that cite this judgment.
2 of the 6 citing cases carry a classified treatment. How each court treated it is available to signed-in members.