An anti-tendency direction that instructs a jury not to reason 'automatically' from admitted offending to guilt on contested counts is inadequate because it implies the same conclusion may be reached through mature consideration, when both pathways involve impermissible tendency reasoning. Where evidence of admitted drug offending is cross-admissible in a multi-count trial, the direction must clearly identify both the permissible use of the evidence and the impermissible tendency reasoning that must be avoided. The distinction between 'relationship/context evidence' and tendency evidence in drug supply cases under Mac v R remains doctrinally uncertain.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 4 later cases that cite this judgment.