© 2026 Zoe. All rights reserved.
Zoe is a legal information platform. Always consult the Federal Register of Legislation for authoritative text.
[2012] HCA 10
High Court of Australia
2012-03-28
French CJ, Bell JJ
Original judgment source is linked above.
T Gyorffy SC and E H Ruddle for the appellant (instructed by Solicitor for Public Prosecutions (Vic))
C B Boyce with L C Carter for the respondent (instructed by Leanne Warren & Associates)
Notice: This copy of the Court's Reasons for Judgment is subject to formal revision prior to publication in the Commonwealth Law Reports.
Criminal law - Rape - Mens rea - Directions to jury - Complainant penetrated anally while asleep - No evidence and no assertion that accused believed complainant consenting - Trial judge directed jury that mental element of offence in s 38(2)(a)(i) of Crimes Act 1958 (Vic) established if accused aware complainant was or might be asleep - Court of Appeal held trial judge's direction precluded jury from considering possibility that accused believed complainant was awake and consenting to intercourse - Whether open on evidence for jury to conclude that accused may have believed complainant to be awake - Whether trial judge permitted or required to direct jury about accused's belief in consent if no evidence or assertion that accused believed in consent.
Words and phrases - "aware", "believed", "if evidence is led or an assertion is made".
"will be satisfied if ... [the accused] was aware that [the complainant] was either asleep, or unconscious, or so affected by alcohol as to be incapable of freely agreeing, or aware that she might be in one of these states. This element will also be satisfied if the prosecution can prove, on any other basis arising from the evidence, that the accused was aware that the complainant was not or might not be consenting or freely agreeing to the sexual penetration."
"Although the Commission considered that 'lack of consent' should be retained as an element of rape and indecent assault, the interim report acknowledged that there was confusion about what this concept entailed, and considerable concern about how it was being applied in specific cases. The report therefore proposed that 'lack of consent' should be legislatively defined."
And after further consultation[13], the Commission proposed[14] the enactment of provisions substantially the same as those enacted by the 1991 Act. It follows that, whatever may have been the (uncertain) state of the common law about lack of consent, the 1991 Act sought to prescribe the law that governed this question.
"For the purposes of Subdivisions (8A) to (8D) 'consent' means free agreement. Circumstances in which a person does not freely agree to an act include the following:
(a) the person submits because of force or the fear of force to that person or someone else;
(b) the person submits because of the fear of harm of any type to that person or someone else;
(c) the person submits because she or he is unlawfully detained;
(d) the person is asleep, unconscious, or so affected by alcohol or another drug as to be incapable of freely agreeing;
(e) the person is incapable of understanding the sexual nature of the act;
(f) the person is mistaken about the sexual nature of the act or the identity of the person;
(g) the person mistakenly believes that the act is for medical or hygienic purposes."
"In a relevant case the judge must direct the jury that -
(a) the fact that a person did not say or do anything to indicate free agreement to a sexual act is normally enough to show that the act took place without that person's free agreement;
(b) a person is not to be regarded as having freely agreed to a sexual act just because -
(i) she or he did not protest or physically resist; or
(iii) on that or an earlier occasion, she or he freely agreed to engage in another sexual act (whether or not of the same type) with that person, or a sexual act with another person;
(c) in considering the accused's alleged belief that the complainant was consenting to the sexual act, it must take into account whether that belief was reasonable in all the relevant circumstances."
(a) he or she intentionally sexually penetrates another person without that person's consent -
(i) while being aware that the person is not consenting or might not be consenting; or
(ii) while not giving any thought to whether the person is not consenting or might not be consenting".
No longer was it necessary for the prosecution to show an accused's awareness of the absence or possible absence of consent; demonstrating that an accused did not give thought to whether the complainant was not or might not be consenting would suffice to establish rape (if the other elements were demonstrated).
"(1) If relevant to the facts in issue in a proceeding the judge must direct the jury on the matters set out in sections 37AAA and 37AA.
(2) A judge must not give to a jury a direction of a kind referred to in section 37AAA or 37AA if the direction is not relevant to the facts in issue in the proceeding."
The new s 37AAA set out "the matters relating to consent on which the judge must direct the jury". They included three matters of present relevance: the meaning of consent set out in s 36[20], that the law deems a circumstance specified in s 36 to be a circumstance in which the complainant did not consent[21], and:
"that if the jury is satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that a circumstance specified in section 36 exists in relation to the complainant, the jury must find that the complainant was not consenting"[22]. (emphasis added)
"(i) in the case of a proceeding in which the jury finds that a circumstance specified in section 36 exists in relation to the complainant, whether the accused was aware that that circumstance existed in relation to the complainant; and
(ii) whether the accused took any steps to ascertain whether the complainant was consenting or might not be consenting, and if so, the nature of those steps; and
The Queen
Getachew
[2011] VSCA 164
[2007] HCA 47
[2001] HCA 46
[2002] HCA 33
[2011] HCA 44
(1952) 85 CLR 437
(2001) 207 CLR 72
(2001) 207 CLR 520
(2001) 208 CLR 1
(2003) 216 CLR 1
(2005) 224 CLR 193
(2005) 224 CLR 300
(2006) 226 CLR 442
(2007) 232 CLR 138
(2009) 239 CLR 27
(2012) 86 ALJR 217
(2010) 28 VR 187
(1999) 198 CLR 1
(2000) 199 CLR 620
(2000) 200 CLR 234
(2001) 205 CLR 50
(2001) 206 CLR 221
(2001) 208 CLR 343
(2004) 79 ALJR 252
(2002) 211 CLR 85
(2005) 219 CLR 196
(2005) 227 CLR 319
(2006) 81 ALJR 439
(2006) 230 CLR 234
(2007) 230 CLR 559
(2008) 235 CLR 334
(2009) 236 CLR 397
(2010) 242 CLR 233
(2011) 85 ALJR 1254
[2012] HCA 3
[2009] HCA 41
[2000] HCA 3