Complaint evidence admitted under s 60 of the Evidence Act 1995 (NSW) is not 'independent' of the complainant's evidence and should not be described as such in directions to the jury. Once a trial judge embarks on summarising evidence in a summing-up, the summary must be fair and balanced; selective summarisation of Crown evidence (including expert evidence) without addressing the defence case and inconsistencies in the complainant's evidence may cause a miscarriage of justice. The relevant direction in the Criminal Trial Courts Bench Book is erroneous on this point.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 9 later cases that cite this judgment.
5 of the 9 citing cases carry a classified treatment. How each court treated it is available to signed-in members.