Trial judges in sexual assault cases are not required to give a Murray direction in the traditional emphatic form; directions that appropriately emphasise the need to assess the complainant's credibility and identify weaknesses in the evidence are sufficient, provided they do not contravene s 294AA of the Criminal Procedure Act 1986 (NSW). The continued use of the label 'Murray direction' is apt to mislead given the enactment of s 294AA, which prohibits warnings suggesting complainants as a class are unreliable witnesses.
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