R v Barakat; R v Younes (No 4) [2016] NSWSC 1310

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: R v Barakat; R v Younes (No 4) [2016] NSWSC 1310 Hearing dates: 09 September 2016 Date of orders: 09 September 2016 Decision date: 16 September 2016 Jurisdiction: Common Law - Criminal Before: N Adams J Decision: (1) Evidence of the accused's possession of a bulletproof vest is excluded. (2) Evidence of the call between the accused and Eleena Bakhos on 17 October 2016 is inadmissible. Catchwords: EVIDENCE – shooting murder – where accused in a possession of a bulletproof vest at the time of execution of a search warrant – whether evidence relevant – whether probative value outweighed by danger of unfair prejudice - danger that jury would engage in impermissible tendency reasoning –- evidence excluded under s 137

EVIDENCE – telephone intercept – where accused makes reference to a firearm in casual conversation – where Crown contends that evidence demonstrates that the accused is a person familiar with firearms – evidence irrelevant and therefore inadmissible Legislation Cited: Evidence Act 1995 (NSW), ss 55, 97, 98, 101, 137 Cases Cited: Melhuish v Regina (2002) NSWCCA 85 Papakosmas v The Queen (1999) 196 CLR 297 R v Barakat; R v Younes (No 1) [2016] NSWSC 1152 Steve v Regina (2008) NSWCCA 231 Category: Procedural and other rulings Parties: Regina Mahmoud Barakat David Younes Representation: Counsel: P McGrath SC (Crown) D Dalton SC (Accused Barakat) G Stanton (Accused Younes)