A trial judge must not direct the jury that they need to accept an accused's exculpatory out-of-court statements as 'true and accurate' before they can use them to assess whether a reasonable doubt arises about the prosecution case. Even if the jury does not accept the statements as true, the possibility that the statements 'might be true' may raise a reasonable doubt. A Liberato direction should be given where there is a real risk the jury might view their role as requiring acceptance of the accused's version before it can generate a reasonable doubt. The expression 'carrying out that plan' is an adequate alternative to 'prosecution of that purpose' for the second requirement of s 8 of the Criminal Code (Qld).
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