A trial judge must not give an Edwards direction about consciousness of guilt lies unless the Crown has contended that the lie is evidence of guilt; doing so raises issues upon which the parties are not joined and gives undeserved prominence to credibility issues. Evidence of an accused's lack of prior convictions is admissible good character evidence under s 110 of the Evidence Act 1995 (NSW) and should not be excluded merely because the trial judge is aware of outstanding allegations in a severed trial. Where the Crown has served a coincidence notice and raises the substance of coincidence reasoning in closing (even without using the word 'coincidence'), a trial judge does not err in directing the jury on coincidence reasoning.
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