Post-offence conduct including lies, flight and disposal of a body may collectively be used as consciousness of guilt evidence to establish murder (not merely manslaughter), provided the jury is directed to consider whether the conduct is explicable as consciousness of guilt of a lesser offence. The disposal of a body does not involve circular reasoning as consciousness of guilt evidence where the jury is directed that it must first be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the accused killed the deceased before considering the disposal as post-offence conduct. In circumstantial cases, a trial judge may frame hypotheses consistent with innocence in a way that highlights matters for the jury's consideration without altering the burden of proof, provided the summing up as a whole makes clear that the Crown must prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.
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