High Court of Australia
High Court of Australia Mason C.J. Deane, Dawson, Toohey and McHugh JJ. Pfennig v The Queen [1995] HCA 7
ORDER Appeal dismissed.
Cur. adv vult.
The following written judgments were delivered:—
1995, Feb. 17 Mason C.J., Deane and Dawson JJ.
This appeal raises questions as to the admissibility of what has been described as propensity or similar fact evidence and the use to which it can be put. There is no one term which satisfactorily describes evidence which is received notwithstanding that it discloses the commission of offences other than those with which the accused is charged. It is always propensity evidence but it may be propensity evidence which falls within the category of similar fact evidence, relationship evidence or identity evidence. Those categories are not exhaustive and are not necessarily mutually exclusive. The term "similar fact" evidence is often used in a general but inaccurate sense.
The appellant was convicted of the murder of Michael John Finlay Black, aged ten years, at or near the town of Murray Bridge, South Australia, on or about 18 January 1989. Michael Black disappeared, having been last seen at Sturt Reserve on the Murray River that day. His body has not been recovered. An appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeal of South Australia against conviction was dismissed unanimously. The case against the appellant was based upon circumstantial evidence. Part of that case was the proof of circumstances involving the abduction by the appellant of another young boy ("H.") about one year later at Port Noarlunga, South Australia. The central question argued in the appeal to this Court from the Court of Criminal Appeal is whether the evidence relating to the H. abduction was admissible at the trial.
The account of the facts which follows is largely taken from the reasons for judgment of Mohr J. in the Court of Criminal Appeal. Such departures as there are from his Honour's statement of the facts are occasioned by reference to the evidence and to our understanding of it.
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