The case confirms that the Dansie/Filippou framework for unreasonable verdict appeals from judge-alone trials applies equally to appeals from qualified findings of guilt following special hearings under the Mental Health and Cognitive Impairment Forensic Provisions Act 2020 (NSW). Timing inconsistencies in a complainant's evidence may raise a reasonable doubt about identification of the perpetrator where the inconsistency places the offending outside the period the accused was present, particularly where the trial judge's advantage in seeing and hearing the witness cannot resolve the doubt. A deliberate decision by trial counsel not to adduce good character evidence will not give rise to a miscarriage of justice where the decision was capable of being justified by a rational apprehension of risk of adverse rebuttal evidence.
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