A jury is entitled to accept the critical parts of a complainant's evidence in a sexual offence case despite demonstrated unreliability on peripheral matters, where the complainant is specific and resolute about the essential features of the offending and key parts of the account are corroborated. In a circumstantial case relying on DNA evidence, the presence of DNA is an indispensable link in the chain of reasoning, but the mechanism of transfer (direct vs secondary) is the ultimate conclusion to be evaluated on the whole of the evidence, not itself an indispensable link. Fitzgerald v The Queen is confined to cases where DNA evidence is the only evidence relied upon to prove a critical fact.
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