Wallace v R [2024] NSWCCA 176

Court of Criminal Appeal Supreme Court New South Wales Medium Neutral Citation: Wallace v R [2024] NSWCCA 176 Hearing dates: 18 September 2024 Date of orders: 25 September 2024 Decision date: 25 September 2024 Before: Harrison CJ at CL at [1] Davies J at [2] Rigg J at [36] Decision: (1) Grant leave to appeal. (2) Uphold ground 3 of the appeal. (3) Quash the conviction of the appellant. (4) Order a new trial. (5) Stand the matter into the arraignments list in the District Court on 11 October 2024. Catchwords: CRIME – appeals – appeal against conviction – miscarriage of justice – whether trial miscarried because the applicant was denied the benefit of a good character direction – where applicant was unrepresented at the trial – where applicant had no history of sexual or violence offences – where no character direction of any sort was given – where Crown conceded that failure to give at least a limited good character direction gave rise to a miscarriage of justice - appeal upheld – conviction quashed – new trial ordered Legislation Cited: Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) ss 61J, 558 Cases Cited: JV v R [2017] NSWCCA 49 Kanbut v R [2022] NSWCCA 259 Melbourne v The Queen (1999) 198 CLR 1; [1999] HCA 32 Simic v The Queen (1980) 144 CLR 319; [1980] HCA 25 Texts Cited: Nil Category: Principal judgment Parties: Peter Norman Wallace (Applicant) Crown (Respondent) Representation: Counsel: T Jones & I Hogan (Applicant) A Bonnor (Respondent)