Criminal Code Act 1899

If, on the trial of a person charged with an indictable offence, there appears to be a variance between the indictment and the evidence, or it appears that any words that ought to have been inserted in the indictment have been omitted, or any count that ought to have been included in the indictment has been omitted, or that any words that ought to have been omitted have been inserted, the court may, if it considers that the variance, omission, or insertion, is not material to the merits of the case, and that the accused person will not be prejudiced thereby in the person’s defence on the merits, order the indictment to be amended, so far as it is necessary, on such terms (if any) as to postponing the trial, and directing it to be had before the same jury or another jury, as the court may think reasonable.

Subsection (1B) applies if the court considers the offence charged in the indictment is also 1 of the following offences (each a relevant domestic violence offence)—

a domestic violence offence;

a domestic violence offence committed against a child;

a domestic violence offence that exposed a child to domestic violence.

Without limiting subsection (1), the court may order that the indictment be amended to also state the offence is a relevant domestic violence offence.

The indictment is thereupon to be amended in accordance with the order of the court.

If the court is satisfied no injustice will be done by amending the indictment, the court may make the order at any time before, or at any stage of, the trial on the indictment, or after verdict.

When an indictment has been amended, the trial is to proceed, at the appointed time, upon the amended indictment, and the same consequences ensue, in all respects and as to all persons, as if the indictment had been originally in its amended form.

If it becomes necessary to draw up a formal record in any case in which an amendment has been made, the record is to be drawn up setting out the indictment as amended, and without taking any notice of the fact of the amendment having been made. sch 1 pt 8 ch 60 s 572 amd 1997 No. 3 s 102; 2015 No. 17 s 5; 2024 No. 5 s 25