In sexual offence trials where consent and the defence of honest and reasonable but mistaken belief as to consent are in issue, the trial judge must relate the directions on those issues to the specific evidence on each count, rather than stating the law as an abstract proposition. This is particularly important where the parties were in a sexual relationship and consent may have been conveyed non-verbally or by a pattern of past behaviour. Relationship evidence of violent conduct admitted under the [name withheld] principle must be limited to evidence that actually answers questions the jury might naturally have about the background to the charged offences, and a direction should not embrace evidence of violence that is not relevant to the specific counts.
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