Where the cause of death is undetermined and the prosecution relies on the entirety of an assault as causative, the prosecution must prove the requisite intention for murder throughout the entire assault. An intention to rob and an intention to cause grievous bodily harm are not mutually exclusive and may co-exist. The dissent (McMurdo JA) would have held that the competing inference of an intention only to rob or purposeless violence could not be excluded, warranting substitution of manslaughter. The case also confirms that where trial counsel makes an informed and deliberate forensic decision not to seek editing of prejudicial evidence, and the decision is explicable as potentially advantageous, no miscarriage of justice is demonstrated.
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