BOLUS v REGINA [2006] NSWCCA 182

New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal

CITATION: BOLUS v REGINA [2006] NSWCCA 182

HEARING DATE(S): 2-3 February 2006

JUDGMENT DATE: 15 June 2006

JUDGMENT OF: McClellan CJ at CL at 1; Hulme J at 56; Adams J at 57

DECISION: Appeal dismissed

CATCHWORDS: CRIMINAL LAW – Appeal against conviction – conspiracy to import cocaine – record of interview – whether judge failed to direct the jury as to consciousness of guilt – whether relevance of record of interview was merely to strengthen an otherwise strong Crown case – application of Rule 4 – whether tactical reasons for not requesting a direction on consciousness of guilt – conscious and informed decision not to seek a redirection – whether the verdict of the jury was unreasonable – meaning of hypothesis consistent with innocence – whether on the whole of the evidence it was open to the jury to conclude that the appellant knew of the planned importation – evidence of recorded conversations – whether an inference available on the knowledge of the accused

LEGISLATION CITED: Customs Act 1901 (Cth) Criminal Appeal Act 1912

Cao v R [2006] NSWCCA 89 Edwards v R (1993) 178 CLR 193 Hugo (2000) 113 A Crim R 484 Jones v The Queen (1997) 191 CLR 439 Knight v The Queen (1992) 175 CLR 495 M v The Queen (1994) 181 CLR 487 CASES CITED: MFA v The Queen (2002) 213 CLR 606 R v Ambrosi [2004] 144 A Crim R 67 R v Chang (2003) 140 A Crim R 573 R v Mato and Rusu [1999] NSWCCA 39 R v Nguyen (2001) 118 A Crim R 479 R v Sievers [2004] 151 A Crim R 426 Regina v Habib [2005] NSWCCA 223 Zoneff v R (2000) 200 CLR 234