Cottrell v R [2012] NSWCCA 117

Court of Criminal Appeal Supreme Court New South Wales Medium Neutral Citation: Cottrell v R [2012] NSWCCA 117 Hearing dates: 22 November 2011 Decision date: 04 June 2012 Before: McClellan CJ at CL at [1] Blanch J at [2 ] Hislop J at [3 ] Decision: Leave to appeal granted; appeal dismissed. Catchwords: Criminal law - conviction appeal - jury verdict - unreasonable or cannot be supported having regard to the evidence - quintessentially jury questions - no miscarriage of justice. Legislation Cited: Criminal Appeal Act 1912 Evidence Act 1995 Cases Cited: Rasic v R [2009] NSWCCA 28 SKA v R [2011] HCA 13; (2011) 243 CLR 400 M v R (1994) 181 CLR 487 Category: Principal judgment Parties: Christopher Paul Cottrell v R Representation: M. Smith (Applicant) J. Girdham (Crown) Crimlaw NSW (Applicant) Solicitor for Public Prosecutions (Crown) File Number(s): 2009/10917 Decision under appeal Date of Decision: 2010-07-06 00:00:00 Before: Norrish QC DCJ

Judgment 1McCLELLAN CJ at CL: I agree with Hislop J. 2BLANCH J: I agree with the conclusion reached by Justice Hislop that the applicant has not demonstrated the verdicts of guilty were unreasonable or were not supported by the evidence or that there has been a miscarriage of justice and I agree with the orders he proposes. Having reviewed the evidence of Mr Roberts, Ms Papafilopoulos and Mr Federico I have formed an assessment of their evidence that it is compelling and although they might be criticised for earlier untruths, I believe their evidence proves the guilt of the applicant beyond a reasonable doubt. 3HISLOP J: