Gregory v The Queen [1983] HCA 24

High Court of Australia Gibbs C.J. Wilson, Brennan, Deane and Dawson JJ. Gregory v The Queen [1983] HCA 24

ORDER Gregory v. The Queen. Application for special leave to appeal granted. Appeal allowed. Order that the judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeal be set aside and in lieu thereof order that the appeal to that Court be allowed, the conviction set aside and a new trial ordered. Sharwood v. The Queen. Application for special leave to appeal granted. Appeal allowed. Order that the judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeal be set aside and in lieu thereof order that the appeal to that Court be allowed, the conviction set aside and a new trial ordered.

Cur. adv. vult.

The Court delivered the following written judgment:—

Aug. 9 Gibbs C.J., Wilson, Brennan, Deane and Dawson JJ.

The applicants Kevin John Gregory ("Gregory") and Glen Andrew Sharwood ("Sharwood") were tried jointly in the Supreme Court at Sydney with James Cox ("Cox") on charges of rape of an eighteen-year-old girl ("the complainant"). The applicants were found guilty by the jury. Cox was acquitted. The applicants appealed against their respective convictions and sentences to the New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal which dismissed their appeal. They now seek special leave to appeal to this Court from their respective convictions. The sole suggested ground of appeal in each case is that the learned trial judge erred in rejecting evidence aimed at showing that, on the occasion on which the alleged offences had occurred, the complainant had consented to intercourse with persons other than the accused in circumstances where such other intercourse formed part of a connected set of circumstances with the alleged offences. To understand this suggested ground of appeal it is necessary to refer briefly to the evidence at the trial and the events out of which the trial arose.