Criminal Lawyers Melbourne

This past case involved a person accused of rape. His appeal against conviction was successful. Errors were found to have been committed by the trial Judge in relation to jury directions as to the accused’s good character. The trial Judge had inappropriately “played down” the effect of the accused’s prior good character by adding a caveat to the effect that ”that evidence of good character may be of limited assistance to you in your deliberations.” This denigrated the effect of the rest of the direction.

See http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/wa/WASCA/2000/273.html.