R v Patel [2015] NSWSC 1021

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: R v Patel [2015] NSWSC 1021 Hearing dates: 29 June 2015 Date of orders: 29 June 2015 Decision date: 27 July 2015 Jurisdiction: Common Law Before: Wilson J Decision: Evidence is not admitted Catchwords: CRIMINAL LAW – evidence – voir dire – probative value - brain lesions Legislation Cited: Evidence Act 1995 Category: Procedural and other rulings Parties: Regina Manisha Patel Representation: Counsel: Mr. H. Baker (Crown) Mr. S. Corrish (Accused)

Solicitors: Solicitor for Public Prosecutions (Crown) Ms. P. Purcell (Accused) File Number(s): 2013/247888 Publication restriction: None

Judgment 1. HER HONOUR: On 9 June 2015 the accused was arraigned upon an indictment charging her with the murder of Purvi Joshi. She entered a plea of not guilty and her trial commenced before me and a jury of twelve. 2. An issue between the parties was the admissibility of evidence relating to observations the deceased made during the course of autopsy investigations. The accused sought to lead evidence of the observation of cortical lesions, identified as nodular cortical dysplasia, and the possible relevance of the existence of the lesions to cause of death. The Crown objected to the evidence being admitted. 3. On 23 June 2015 evidence was called on the voir dire from Dr. Michael Rodriguez (in the Crown case) and Adjunct Professor John Hilton (in the accused's case). The reports of each were before the Court (as Voir Dire Exhibits A and B respectively). To avoid disrupting the evidence before the jury, submissions were left until 29 June 2015 when both the Crown and the accused addressed the Court. 4. After having heard the submissions of the parties I rejected the evidence relating to the existence of the cortical lesions. Again, to avoid undue disruption to the jury, I reserved my reasons for that ruling. These are my reasons.