R v Glennon [1992] HCA 16

High Court of Australia Mason C.J. Brennan, Deane, Dawson, Toohey, Gaudron and McHugh JJ. R v Glennon [1992] HCA 16

ORDER Application for special leave to appeal granted. Appeal allowed. Set aside the orders of the Court of Criminal Appeal. Remit the matter to the Court of Criminal Appeal for consideration of the outstanding grounds of appeal.

Cur. adv. vult.

The following written judgments were delivered:—

May 6 Mason C.J. and Toohey J.

This is an application for special leave to appeal from a judgment of the Full Court of the Supreme Court of Victoria (McGarvie and Nathan JJ., Southwell J. dissenting) sitting as the Court of Criminal Appeal. That Court upheld the appeal of the respondent against convictions returned by a jury in the County Court at Melbourne, quashed the convictions and entered verdicts of acquittal. The respondent was convicted in June 1991 on five counts: indecently assaulting a girl under the age of sixteen, attempted buggery of a boy under the age of fourteen, buggery of a male with violence and two counts of indecently assaulting boys under the age of sixteen. The respondent was acquitted of the other twelve charges on the presentment filed against him. All offences were alleged to have been committed between 1977 and 1980.

The application for special leave is opposed on the ground that special leave to appeal should be granted to the Crown only in very exceptional circumstances: see R. v. Lee [1] and Reg. v. Benz [2] . Although, at common law, an appeal did not lie at the suit of the Crown from a verdict of acquittal by a jury because the verdict of the jury was sacrosanct, a Crown appeal from a judgment of acquittal given by a court of criminal appeal stands in a different position, as Mason C.J. explained in Benz [3] . To quote the words of Evatt J. in R. v. Weaver [4] :