The Victorian Court of Appeal held that the hearsay exceptions in s 65(3) and (6) (limited by s 62) and s 81 (limited by s 82(a)) of the Evidence Act 2008 can operate in combination to admit prior sworn evidence of an unavailable witness's first-hand account of admissions made by an accused. Section 65(3) permits proof that the accused uttered the relevant words (a fact within the witness's personal knowledge under s 62), and s 81 (limited by s 82(a)) then operates of its own force to treat those words as an admission, because the evidence is relevantly 'given by' the unavailable witness when adduced directly into the trial via authenticated transcript or recording under s 65(6), rather than through a third-party intermediary. The Court held that Price [2023] VSC 149 was wrongly decided insofar as it treated s 62 as a complete bar to proof of admissions via s 65(3), without considering the combined operation of s 81. The Court also refused leave on sentence, holding that a life sentence with a 32-year non-parole period for murder was not manifestly excessive in the circumstances.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 1 later case that cites this judgment.