Denial of knowledge of the assault
45 The appellant participated in an interview with the police but did not give evidence at his trial. The record of the interview was tendered. The Crown alleged that the appellant had lied during his interview. The prosecutor told the jury that these alleged lies evinced a consciousness of guilt in the appellant.
46 The Crown identified three lies told by the appellant in the ERISP. Although separately discussed they all related to whether the appellant was aware of the assault of Mr Rumble before he was spoken to by the police on the morning of 3 March.
47 The appellant told the police that the first he had heard of the assault was "when you blokes (the police) spoke to me about it this morning" (ie 3 March 2006). He said this despite the fact that he had answered the door to plain-clothes police officers that had come to his home on 28 February 2006. On that occasion the police had come to speak with Simpson about the assault. The appellant told police in the ERISP that he made no enquiry of Simpson after the police left that day as to the why they had come to the house. In relation to the statement that the appellant knew nothing of the assault until 3 March 2006, the Crown Prosecutor said to the jury:
"That's garbage. That, I would submit to you, is a lie. It was a deliberate lie and it was a deliberate lie told by him, I would submit to you, to avoid the truth and he was avoiding the truth because he knew in his mind that if he told the truth he would be implicating himself in this assault."
48 When the police asked the appellant whether the allegation had been brought to his attention that it was he who had assaulted the victim, the appellant replied, "No, as a matter of fact, this is the first I've heard of it." In relation to this statement, the Crown Prosecutor said to the jury:
"That's garbage. It's got to be a lie. And it's got to be a lie told by him with a consciousness of his own guilt."
49 When asked by police whether he was aware that the victim had been admitted to hospital as a result of being assaulted, the appellant said, "No, like I said, I wasn't aware of anything of this until yous (sic) picked me this morning." In relation to this statement, the Crown Prosecutor said:
"That's another lie and you are entitled, listening very carefully to the directions that his Honour will give you, no doubt, about this particular aspect - I would ask you to listen very carefully to what he says about it, but please bear this in mind, that the Crown is relying quite heavily upon those lies told by the accused because we do say that they evince a consciousness of guilt on his part."
50 The trial judge dealt with the question of lies in his summing up. He was firm in rejecting the prosecutor's submission with respect to the significance of the appellant's account of when he first came to learn of the incident. His Honour said:
"During the course of that interview, members of the jury, the accused told Senior Constable Kitcher that 3 March was the first occasion on which he had come to hear of this incident. The learned crown prosecutor in his closing address to you yesterday invited you to find that was a lie and that in lying, the accused manifested a consciousness of his own guilt. I have to tell you as a matter of law, members of the jury, with due respect to the learned crown prosecutor that you are not entitled to use the evidence in that way. If you were satisfied that the accused was lying when he said that, you can take that into account in assessing his overall credibility but you can not use it as some sort of admission or as an indication that he was conscious of his own guilt in relation to the matter."
51 The trial judge referred to the interview with the police in general terms. However, the appellant submitted that there were three separate lies (being the three occasions I have referred to above) identified by the Crown and only one of them was dealt with by the trial judge. The appellant contended that the trial judge's direction did little to ameliorate the impact of the second and third occasions in the sequence. It was submitted that the judge's directions did not "take the sting" out of the prohibited inferences that the Crown invited the jury to draw from the purported lies.
52 The three lies identified by the Crown Prosecutor in his address were cited in short succession and the Crown Prosecutor made similar submissions in respect to each of them. Although there were differences in the subject matter of each of the three impugned responses by the appellant, each one was consistent with the one proposition- that he was not present on the night of the assault and had no knowledge whatsoever of the events of that night. The first sentence of the trial judge's direction was of general application and would have been understood by the jury as referring to the lies identified by the Crown Prosecutor. The direction was firm and left the jury in no doubt as to the approach which it should take to the question of lies. The jury could have regard to the appellant's response when considering his credit but not as evidence of a consciousness of guilt.