17 One immediately notes that the Crown is required to establish that the accused had the intention of causing the other person (in this case Shekurd) to feel fear or physical or mental harm. Further, a person intends to case fear or physical or mental harm if he or she knows that the conduct is likely to cause fear in the other person. Thus the state of mind of the accused at the relevant time is an important element in the Crown case.
18 It is apparent that the learned Crown prosecutor had informed Mr Turnbull of counsel (who appeared for the appellant), prior to the commencement of the trial, that the Crown intended to lead evidence from Mejid, Shekurd and Shiwan of events between 1993 and the critical dates in 1998 of conduct by the accused and threats by him to members of the Atroushi family, relevant to his relationship with Shekurd and the retribution he would seek if she declined to marry him.
19 Mr Turnbull was provided with copies of statements by these three persons, to indicate, broadly, the material which the Crown intended to lead as to the events between 1993 and 1998, to which I shall refer, for the sake of convenience, as the relationship evidence.
20 After the jury had been empanelled, his Honour was requested by both counsel to give a ruling on the admissibility of the relationship evidence which the Crown proposed to lead.
21 Mr Turnbull objected to the relationship evidence because it was too distant in time from the asserted conduct of the appellant during the critical period, ie between 25 and 29 January 1998. He submitted that the evidence should be confined to the appellant's conduct on those specific days. He submitted that "what stalking deals with…is an ongoing present circumstance. … The use of the present tense in relation to following, watching or frequenting connotes just that, a series of temporally linked instances which are relatively contemporaneous with the apprehension of the accused in relation to it."
22 Mr Turnbull did concede, however, that the evidence of the making of the apprehended violence order was relevant.
23 His Honour had before him statements from Mejid (3 February 1998), Shekurd (28 January 1998) and Shiwan (28 January 1998, 25 February 1996 and 9 January 1995). These statements outlined the nature of the relationship evidence, albeit in some paragraphs the material was not in an admissible form.
24 It is only necessary in order to understand his Honour's ruling to note paragraphs 5-9 of Mejid's statement, which are in the following form: -
"5. Safer (sic) lived at my house 5/25 Collimore Avenue for 40 days after which he moved out on his own living not far from my house. During the time Safer was living with us, I arranged for all his Social Benefit needs.
6. Safer kept in touch, coming over [to] our house regularly and having coffee or tea. A couple of months after Safer moved out of my house, he approached me in the street and said, 'I wish to marry Shekurd.'
I said, 'I have no problem with that providing Shekurd agrees, I'll ask her.' He accepted and went on his way.
7. That evening I spoke to my daughter Shekurd and told her about Safer's marriage proposal and she declined. A week later I travelled to Iraq. Safer's parents approached me with the same proposal of marriage and I gave them the same answer, but I did not tell them that Shekurd declined that proposal. I simply told them that I would let her know and she would decide.
8. Eight months later, I returned to Australia and my daughter told me about Safer's advances. Safer continued to visit us and I eventually told him to cut his ties with us because my daughter did not wish to marry him and did not appreciate his advances.
9. From then on, he began ringing my house and at times I answered and he would make threats against (sic) saying, 'I have to marry Shekurd and if she refuses I will kill her, if anyone marries her (sic) will die and who ever stands in my way (sic) will kill him' I remember him making the same threat twice to me on the telephone. On many occasions, Safer confronted me in the streets making the same threats. The Police were involved in (sic) twice. I even took out a restraining order to stop Safer from approaching me and my family."
25 Prior to the Crown prosecutor opening to the jury, his Honour gave the following concise ruling: -
"I will permit material such as paragraph 9 of Mejid Atroushi's statement to be adduced in evidence as being relevant to the accused's state of mind as far as particularly the first count is concerned. And I don't see anything in section 137 which would take it out so I will allow it. But by the same token I certainly wouldn't want to encourage dilation of that material eg from the brother's evidence."
26 It is clear from this ruling that his Honour had applied his mind to whether the probative value of the proposed evidence was outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice to the appellant, as required by s 137 of the Evidence Act, 1995.
27 There is nothing in the trial transcript to indicate that his Honour was asked to exercise his discretion under s 135 of the Evidence Act to exclude the relationship evidence on the basis that its probative value was substantially outweighed by the danger that the evidence might be unfairly prejudicial to the appellant.
28 Ground 1 in the notice of appeal is in the following terms: -
"The trial judge erred in allowing the evidence of Mejid Atroushi, Shekurd Atroushi and Shiwan Atroushi with regards to acts, contact and behaviour of the appellant with the complainant and her family from 1993 until the date of the alleged offences in 1998 on the basis that that evidence was not relevant and should have been excluded."
29 Ground 2 is in the following terms: -
"In the alternative to ground 1, the trial judge erred in allowing the evidence of Mejid Atroushi, Shekurd Atroushi and Shiwan Atroushi with regards to acts, contact and behaviour of the appellant with the complainant and her family from 1993 until the date of the alleged offences in 1998 on the basis that that evidence was prejudicial and should have been excluded in the exercise of the trial judge's discretion."
30 The parties have conveniently agreed that the following is a summary (taken from the Crown's submissions in writing to this Court) of the evidence (with transcript references) which was admitted pursuant to his Honour's general ruling quoted above, and which is the subject of the first and second grounds of appeal: -
" Complainant's evidence
· The appellant persistently followed the complainant from morning until evening, trying to stop her and talk to her (31.8.98 at 26-27).
· The appellant raised the subject of marriage when he stopped her in the street but the complainant told him it was an inappropriate time, place and manner in which to discuss such a topic (31.8.98 at 26).
· The appellant threatened to kill the complainant or one of her family if she didn't agree to marry him (31.8.98 at 27-28).
…
Complainant's father's evidence (Mejid Atroushi)
· The appellant was Mr Atroushi's nephew. Mr Atroushi sponsored the appellant to come to Australia in 1993 and took him in as a house guest for his first 40 days in this country (31.8.98 at 8).
· The appellant asked Mr Atroushi for permission to marry the complainant (31.8.98 at 8).
· The complainant declined the proposal. At some unspecified time this was conveyed to the appellant (31.8.98 at 9-10).
· Mr Atroushi told the appellant that his relationship with Mr Atroushi's family should cease (31.8.98 at 10.30).
· On about four occasions the appellant swore at and threatened violence towards Mr Atroushi and members of his family including the complainant. On one occasion there was a fight in public, the police were called and a case went to court (31.8.98 at 10-11).
· On the last mentioned occasion the appellant had said, 'If she refuses to marry me I will kill her even though I would go to gaol for ten years' (31.8.98 at 12.3)
The complainant's brother (Shiwan Atroushi)
· The appellant spoke of a need to marry the complainant or else he would kill her or some of her family (1.9.98 at 46).
· In about late December 1994 the appellant made a telephone call in which he uttered threats against the complainant's family (1.9.98 at 48.31).
· On 3 January 1995 the appellant attacked Mr Shiwan Atroushi with a metal bar in a street in Liverpool. On seeing Shiwan's father and sister the appellant ran off but was arrested a short time later (1.9.98 at 48-49)."
31 Having admitted the above evidence, it was necessary for his Honour to give the jury a specific direction that such evidence was admitted for a limited purpose, and that it must not be used to show a general criminal disposition on the part of the appellant. In this respect, his Honour gave the following direction, to which no objection was taken at the trial: -
"It may be convenient if I mention another legal direction now. We have had some relatively brief evidence as to events earlier than - whether it be January or April 1995 it is not important. I think the last incident was 3 January, but the actual order was 7 April. So evidence of what happened up to that point of time comes before you for a limited purpose only, and that is as to an examination of the state of mind of Mr Atroushi. If you accept that what he did was as is alleged in the Crown case you would need to consider what was going on in his mind, and in that consideration you are entitled to look back at the earlier events. If you accept them it could assist you in coming to a conclusion about his state of mind on 26, 27 and 28 January. But you are not entitled to use that material to, for example, say to yourselves that this man has a propensity to commit crime. That is not the approach at all. It is for that limited purpose of examining his state of mind. The only evidence directly against him in relation to these matters is of the events of the 26, 27 and 28 January."
32 Before this Court, counsel for the appellant, who was not counsel at the trial, argued in essence that the relationship evidence should have been rejected because it is not relevant within the meaning of s 55 of the Evidence Act as it could not rationally affect (directly or indirectly) the assessment of the probability of the existence of a fact in issue in the proceeding, ie that the appellant stalked the complainant between 25 and 29 January 1998. This is because it was too remote in time.
33 Generally speaking, relationship evidence is admissible in order to place the evidence of the offence charged into a true and realistic context, in order to assist the jury to appreciate the full significance of what would otherwise appear to be an isolated act occurring without any apparent reason: see e.g. R v MM (2000) 112 A Crim R 519 at 538. In the instant case, it had a more specific function in that it went to an element of the offence, namely, that the appellant had the intention of causing the complainant to fear physical or mental harm in that he knew that his conduct was likely to cause fear in the complainant.