The Court of Appeal held that once an accused is acquitted by directed verdict on a charge of rape and discharged under s 646 of the Criminal Code (Qld), there is no longer an 'indictment charging a person with the crime of rape' before the jury, and s 578(1) cannot operate to permit conviction on a statutory alternative offence. The proper course is for the trial judge to instruct the jury on the directed acquittal during the summing up and take all verdicts — including on the alternative charge — together after deliberation, rather than taking the directed verdict and discharging the accused mid-trial. The Court also held that domestic violence directions under pt 6A div 3 of the Evidence Act 1977 (Qld) are properly given alongside sexual offence directions where the statutory criteria are met, and that the combination of such directions with uncharged acts directions does not of itself occasion a miscarriage of justice.
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