Wentworth v R [2023] NSWCCA 143

Court of Criminal Appeal Supreme Court New South Wales Medium Neutral Citation: Wentworth v R [2023] NSWCCA 143 Hearing dates: 27 February 2023 Date of orders: 16 June 2023 Decision date: 16 June 2023 Before: Beech-Jones CJ at CL at [1] McNaughton J at [63] R A Hulme AJ at [64] Decision: (1) The applicant be granted leave to appeal against his convictions. (2) The appeal be dismissed. Catchwords: CRIME — appeals — appeal against conviction — unreasonable verdict — 14 historical sexual offences over a period of five years — where applicant lived on same street as complainant and groomed him —whether verdicts were reasonably open to the jury having regard to the whole of the evidence — scope of the jury's advantage in seeing and hearing the complainant give evidence and in considering his credibility was relatively wide — various attacks on the complainant's credit did not "taint" his evidence when considered in context — leave to appeal allowed — appeal dismissed Legislation Cited: Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) Criminal Appeal Act 1912 (NSW) Cases Cited: AJ v R [2022] NSWCCA 136 Daaboul v R (2019) 100 NSWLR 682; [2019] NSWCCA 191 Dansie v The Queen [2022] HCA 25; (2022) 96 ALJR 728 M v The Queen (1994) 181 CLR 487; [1994] HCA 63 Mahmood v Western Australia (2008) 232 CLR 397; [2008] HCA 1 MFA v The Queen (2002) 213 CLR 606; [2002] HCA 53 Nguyen v R [2022] NSWCCA 126 Pell v The Queen (2020) 268 CLR 123; [2020] HCA 12 R v Markuleski (2001) 52 NSWLR 82; [2001] NSWCCA 290 Category: Principal judgment Parties: Dean Wentworth (Applicant) Rex (Respondent) Representation: Counsel: Ms K Stares SC; Mr J Etkind (Applicant) Ms S Traynor (Respondent)