1The Liberato direction does not require a magistrate to consider and reject the accused's evidence in a particular sequence before assessing the prosecution case; findings must be explained in some order and the sequence of written reasons does not of itself reveal error.
2A fact-finder's assessment of an accused's account may properly take into account the whole of the evidence, including the strength of the complainant's evidence and corroborating material; credibility need not be assessed in a vacuum.
3An ambiguous phrase in oral reasons ('I don't think – it may be true') must be read in the context of the reasons as a whole; where the magistrate had clearly rejected the accused's account sentences earlier, the phrase did not establish that the magistrate accepted the account might be true.
