Where a trial judge's misdirection or omission of direction on a mental element has led to acquittals on some counts, those acquittals cannot be treated as reliable for the purpose of reconciling them with a guilty verdict on another count — the assumption that juries follow directions cuts both ways. Section 294(2)(c) of the Criminal Procedure Act 1986 (NSW) prohibits directing that delay is relevant to credibility (absent sufficient evidence) but does not require a direction that delay is not relevant. An inadequate Liberato direction that fails to convey the second limb — that the jury must acquit if the accused's account might be true even if not positively believed — constitutes a wrong decision on a question of law where there is a real chance it affected the verdict.
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