Sexual Assault Trials Handbook — Evidence

[T]he disputed evidence should make more likely, to a significant extent, the facts that make up the elements of the offence charged.

To the extent that similes can help elucidate the statutory measure of “significant”, the capacity of the evidence to contribute to the proof or disproof of the existence of the fact in issue does not need to be “substantial” but does need to be “important” or “of consequence”.

[T]he open-textured nature of an enquiry into whether “the court thinks” that the probative value of the evidence is “significant” means it is inevitable that reasonable minds might reach different conclusions.

The assessment of whether the evidence has significant probative value involves consideration of two interrelated, but separate matters. The first is the extent to which the evidence supports the asserted tendency. The second is the extent to which the tendency makes more likely the facts making up the charged offence. Where the question is not one of the identity of a known offender but is instead a question concerning whether the offence was committed, it is important to consider both matters. By seeing that there are two matters involved it is easier to appreciate the dangers in focusing on single labels such as “underlying unity”, “pattern of conduct” or “modus operandi”. In summary there is likely to be a high degree of probative value where (i) the evidence by itself or together with other evidence strongly supports proof of a tendency and (ii), the tendency strongly supports the proof of a fact that makes up the offence charged.

Of course, where there are multiple counts on an indictment, it is necessary to consider each count separately to assess whether the tendency evidence which is sought to be adduced in relation to that count is admissible.

The starting point requires identifying the tendency and the fact or facts in issue which it is adduced to prove. The facts in issue in a criminal proceeding are those which establish the elements of the offence.

In the trial of child sexual offences, it is common for the complainant’s account to be challenged on the basis that it has been fabricated or that anodyne conduct has been misinterpreted. Logic and human experience suggest proof that the accused is a person who is sexually interested in children and who has a tendency to act on that interest is likely to be influential to the determination of whether the reasonable possibility that the complainant has misconstrued innocent conduct or fabricated his or her account has been excluded.

In essence, the tendency evidence in Hughes had significant probative value because it made probable that which would otherwise be regarded as improbable; that is, engaging in sexual conduct in circumstances in which the appellant ran a real risk of discovery by other adults.

Section 97(1)(b) is intended to address the risk of an unfair trial through the use of tendency reasoning by ensuring a sufficiently high threshold of admissibility. We consider the approach currently taken by the New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal to tendency and coincidence goes too far in lowering the threshold to admissibility. To remove any requirement of similarity or commonality of features does not in our respectful opinion give effect to what is inherent in the notion of “significant probative value”. If the evidence does no more than prove a disposition to commit crimes of the kind in question, it will not have sufficient probative force to make it admissible. This view, we think, clearly represents the present.

Commonly, evidence of a person’s conduct adduced to prove a tendency to act in a particular way will bear similarity to the conduct in issue. Section 97(1) does not, however, condition the admission of tendency evidence on the court’s assessment of operative features of similarity with the conduct in issue. The probative value of tendency evidence will vary depending upon the issue that it is adduced to prove. In criminal proceedings where it is adduced to prove the identity of the offender for a known offence, the probative value of tendency evidence will almost certainly depend upon close similarity between the conduct evidencing the tendency and the offence. Different considerations may inform the probative value of tendency evidence where the fact in issue is the occurrence of the offence.

Much of the accepted approach to tendency evidence in this State — digested and explained in Velkoski — must now be significantly qualified in light of the treatment of the subject by the majority in Hughes.

The only qualification to this is that it is not necessary that the disputed evidence has this effect by itself. It is sufficient if the disputed evidence together with other evidence makes significantly more likely any facts making up the elements of the offence charged.

The particularity of the tendency and the capacity of its demonstration to be important to the rational assessment of whether the prosecution has discharged its onus of proof will depend upon a consideration of the circumstances of the case.

A tendency expressed at a high level of generality might mean that all the tendency evidence provides significant support for that tendency, but it will also mean the tendency cannot establish anything more than relevance. In contrast a tendency expressed at a level of particularity will be more likely to be significant.

At a practical level, it could not be intended that a trial judge undertake an assessment of the actual probative value of the evidence at the point of admissibility. As Simpson J pointed out in R v XY, the evidence will usually be tendered before the full picture can be seen. A determination of the weight to be given to the evidence, such as by reference to its credibility or reliability, will depend not only on its place in the evidence as a whole, but on an assessment of witnesses after examination and cross-examination and after weighing the account of each witness against each other.

Once it is understood that an assumption as to the jury’s acceptance of the evidence must be made, it follows that no question as to credibility of the evidence, or the witness giving it, can arise. For the same reason, no question as to the reliability of the evidence can arise. If the jury are to be taken to accept the evidence, they will be taken to accept it completely in proof of the facts stated. There can be no disaggregation of the two — reliability and credibility — as Dupas v The Queen may imply. They are both subsumed in the jury’s acceptance of the evidence.

…

The view expressed in Dupas v The Queen, which reserved a particular role for the trial judge with respect to the reliability of evidence, did not have its foundations in textual considerations of the Evidence Act, but rather in a policy attributed to the common law. The Evidence Act contains no warrant for the application of tests of reliability or credibility in connection with ss 97(1)(b) and 137. The only occasion for a trial judge to consider the reliability of evidence, in connection with the admissibility of evidence, is provided by s 65(2)(c) and (d) and s 85. It is the evident policy of the Act that, generally speaking, questions as to the reliability or otherwise of evidence are matters for a jury, albeit that a jury would need to be warned by the trial judge about evidence which may be unreliable pursuant to s 165.

Having laboured the point that the difference between the competing approaches is not often likely to be of great consequence, I turn squarely to address the underlying issue of statutory construction. My conclusion, like that of Nettle and Gordon JJ, is that the view of McHugh J is to be preferred to the view of Gaudron J.

Unlike Nettle and Gordon JJ, I gain no assistance in reaching that conclusion from construing the Evidence Act against the background of the common law. As Spigelman CJ observed in R v Ellis in a passage which was given prominence in the report of the joint review of the Uniform Evidence Acts in 2005:

“It is ... noteworthy that the Act provides a definition of ‘probative value’ ... Although the definition could well have been the same as at common law, the fact that such a term was defined at all suggests an intention to ensure consistency for purposes of the Evidence Act for the words, which appear in a number of different sections ... This suggests that the Act, even if substantially based on the common law, was intended to operate in accordance with its own terms.

The common law did not employ the concept of probative value with statutory precision, and the common law developed no general rule to the effect that reliability (in the sense now used in the Evidence Act) was or was not to be assumed in assessing probative value for all purposes of determining admissibility. For some purposes, such as determining the admissibility of tendency evidence or of coincidence evidence, it came to be established that the assessment of probative value was required to proceed on the assumption that the truth of the evidence would be accepted. For other purposes, such as considering the discretion to exclude prosecution evidence, the probative value of which was outweighed by the risk of unfair prejudice to the accused, it has been acknowledged that considerations indicating evidence to be unreliable might on occasions be sufficient to deprive the evidence of probative value.”

Together with Nettle and Gordon JJ, I consider the view of McHugh J — that an assessment of probative value necessarily involves considerations of reliability — to be a view that is compelled by the language, structure and evident design of the Evidence Act. To think of evidence that is relevant as evidence that has some probative value and to go on to think of probative value as a measure of the degree to which evidence is relevant is intuitively appealing. It is elegant; it has the attraction of symmetry. For many purposes, it may not be inaccurate. But it is not an exact fit for the conceptual framework which the statutory language erects. The statutory description of relevance requires making an assumption that evidence is reliable; the statutory definition of probative value does not provide for making that assumption. The conceptual framework which the statutory language erects therefore admits of the possibility that relevant evidence will lack probative value because it is not reliable.

The admission of the complaint evidence involves different considerations because it was contended that the complaint evidence should have been excluded under s 137. In light of what has been said about the proper construction of s 137, it follows that the judge erred in the application of s 137 by assuming that the complaint evidence would be accepted and, therefore, by failing to have regard to the credibility and reliability of the evidence in determining whether it was of such probative value as not to be outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice to the appellant.

The concept of “concoction” suggests a deliberate fabrication of the evidence. By contrast, the term “contamination” may involve an unconscious process of suggestion being adopted.

Whilst, in determining probative value as a question of capability to affect the assessment of a fact in issue, the court is not required to disregard inherent implausibility, on the other hand, contestable questions of credibility and reliability are not for the trial judge, but for the jury. Accordingly, the suggestion that the possibility of concoction is a factor which must be taken into account in determining whether particular evidence has significant probative value should not be accepted.

In a case of this kind, the probative value of this evidence lies in its capacity to support the credibility of a complainant’s account. In cases where there is evidence from a source independent of the complainant, the requisite degree of probative value is more likely to be met. That is not to say that a complainant’s unsupported evidence can never meet that test. It is possible that there may be some special features of a complainant’s account of an uncharged incident which give it significant probative value. But without more, it is difficult to see how a complainant’s evidence of conduct of a sexual kind from an occasion other than the charged acts can be regarded as having the requisite degree of probative value.”

Evidence from a complainant adduced to show an accused’s sexual interest can generally have limited, if any, capacity to rationally affect the probability that the complainant’s account of the charged offences is true. It is difficult to see that one might reason rationally to conclude that X’s account of charged acts of sexual misconduct is truthful because X gives an account that on another occasion the accused exhibited sexual interest in him or her.

For these reasons the tendency evidence given by the complainant did not qualify as having significant probative value and was not admissible under s 97(1)(b).

Provided the jury could rationally find the complainant to be credible, her tendency evidence was of some probative value: if the jury were to find the complainant to be credible, the evidence provided a basis on which the jury could go on rationally and indirectly to infer that there was an increased probability that the appellant committed one or more of the sexual offences against the complainant with which he was charged. The real question is whether that probative value was capable of warranting the label of significant.

The difficulty of concluding that the complainant’s testimony about the massage incident was capable of having significant probative value was not just that the testimony was uncorroborated. Her testimony about the massage incident was uncorroborated within a context in which the credibility of the whole of her testimony was in issue. There was nothing to make her uncorroborated testimony about that incident more credible than her uncorroborated testimony about the occasions of the offences charged. There was no rational basis for the jury to accept one part of the complainant’s testimony but to reject the other. The increased probability of the appellant having committed the offences which would follow from the jury accepting that part of the complainant’s testimony which constituted tendency evidence could in those circumstances add nothing of consequence to the jury’s assessment of that probability based on its consideration of that part of the complainant’s testimony which constituted direct testimony about what the appellant in fact did on the occasions of the offences. The probative value of the tendency evidence could not be regarded as significant.

For that reason, in my view, the tendency evidence was improperly admitted in the present case, and application of the correct test of probative value could not have resulted in the tendency evidence having been properly admitted.

An inclination on the part of a mature adult to engage in sexual conduct with underage girls and a willingness to act upon that inclination are unusual as a matter of ordinary human experience. Often, evidence of such an inclination will include evidence of grooming of potential victims so as to reveal a “pattern of conduct” or a “modus operandi” which would qualify the evidence as admissible at common law. But significant probative value may be demonstrated in other ways. In this case the tendency evidence showed that the unusual interactions which the appellant was alleged to have pursued involved courting a substantial risk of discovery by friends, family members, workmates or even casual passersby. This level of disinhibited disregard of the risk of discovery by other adults is even more unusual as a matter of ordinary human experience. The evidence might not be described as involving a pattern of conduct or modus operandi — for the reason that each alleged offence involved a high degree of opportunism; but to accept that that is so is not to accept that the evidence does no more than prove a disposition to commit crimes of the kind in question.

The reception of tendency evidence in a criminal trial may occasion prejudice in a number of ways. The jury may fail to allow that a person who has a tendency to have a particular state of mind, or to act in a particular way, may not have had that state of mind, or may not have acted in that way, on the occasion in issue. Or the jury may underestimate the number of persons who share the tendency to have that state of mind or to act in that way. In either case the tendency evidence may be given disproportionate weight. In addition to the risks arising from tendency reasoning, there is the risk that the assessment of whether the prosecution has discharged its onus may be clouded by the jury’s emotional response to the tendency evidence. And prejudice may be occasioned by requiring an accused to answer a raft of uncharged conduct stretching back, perhaps, over many years.

The premise for the appellant’s submission – that it is “well-established” that under the identical test in s 98(1)(b) the possibility of joint concoction may deprive evidence of probative value consistently with the approach to similar fact evidence stated in Hoch v The Queen – should not be accepted. Section 101(2) places a further restriction on the admission of tendency and coincidence evidence. That restriction does not import the “rational view ... inconsistent with the guilt of the accused” test found in Hoch v The Queen.

The criminal trial on indictment proceeds on the assumption that jurors are true to their oath, that, in the quaint words of the ancient oath, they hearken to the evidence and that they obey the trial judge’s directions. On that assumption, which I regard as fundamental to the criminal jury trial, the common law countries have staked a great deal. If it was rejected or disregarded, no one – accused, trial judge or member of the public – could have any confidence in any verdict of a criminal jury or in the criminal justice system whenever it involves a jury trial. If it was rejected or disregarded, the pursuit of justice through the jury system would be as much a charade as the show trial of any totalitarian state. Put bluntly, unless we act on the assumption that criminal juries act on the evidence and in accordance with the directions of the trial judge, there is no point in having criminal jury trials.

(i) 

To demonstrate that there was a process of habituating ISS to physical contact with the appellant so that such contact seemed unremarkable.

(ii) 

To place count 1 in its proper context so that rather than appearing to be an extraordinary assault which had suddenly occurred, it could be seen as a result of a course of conduct in which sexual touching had been established between the appellant and ISS as a normal activity and had progressed to a more serious form of indecent touching

(iii) 

To provide a proper basis for the jury to make an assessment of the description by ISS of count 1 and more particularly her failure to resist the appellant, to cry out for help or to otherwise express surprise at what was, viewed in isolation, an almost unbelievable anomaly in the father/daughter relationship.

(iv) 

To place count 2 in its proper context so that, rather than appearing to be another isolated and quite extraordinary sexual attack upon ISS, the offence was seen as the continuation and culmination of a consistent course of conduct over a period of years

(v) 

To provide some explanation for the failure of ISS to complain about her father’s conduct. Without the evidence of what could readily be considered as a slow process of habituating ISS to sexual activity, the jury might well have found it incredible that after the occurrence of count 1 (and later count 2), ISS made no complaint.

If admitted the trial judge must carefully direct the jury both at the time at which the evidence is given and in the summing up of the confined use they may make of the evidence. They should be told in clear terms that the evidence has been admitted to provide background to the alleged relationship between the complainant and the accused so that the evidence of the complainant and his/her response to the alleged acts of the accused, can be understood and his/her evidence evaluated with a complete understanding of that alleged relationship. The jury must be told that they cannot use the evidence as tendency evidence.

(i) 

coincidence evidence is not to be admitted if the court thinks that evidence would not, either by itself, or having regard to other evidence already adduced, or anticipated, have significant probative value

(ii) 

probative value is the extent to which the evidence could rationally affect the assessment of the probability of the existence of a fact in issue (see the Dictionary to the Evidence Act)

(iii) 

the actual probative value to be assigned to any item of evidence is a question for the tribunal of fact — here, the jury

(iv) 

the probative value actually to be assigned to any item of evidence cannot finally be determined until all of the evidence in the case is complete

(v) 

the task of the judge in determining whether to admit evidence tendered as coincidence evidence is therefore essentially an evaluative and predictive one. The judge is required, firstly, to determine whether the evidence is capable of rationally affecting the probability of the existence of a fact in issue; secondly (if that determination is affirmative) to evaluate, in the light of any evidence already adduced, and evidence that is anticipated, the likelihood that the jury would assign the evidence significant (in the sense explained by Hunt CJ at CL in Lockyer (1996) 89 A Crim R 457) probative value. If the evaluation results in a conclusion that the jury would be likely to assign the evidence significant probative value, the evidence is admissible. If the assessment is otherwise, s 98 mandates that the evidence is not to be admitted.

However, as Whealy JA has pointed out (at [78]–[81]), the trial judge in forming a view as to whether the evidence has significant probative value must consider by reference to the evidence itself or other evidence adduced or to be adduced by the party tendering it, whether there is a real possibility of an alternate explanation inconsistent with (in this case) the guilt of the party against whom it is tendered. This is because the availability of such an alternative hypothesis will be relevant to forming the view required by the section that the evidence has significant probative value. However, this does not involve either undertaking the fact-finding analysis suggested by senior counsel for DSJ or reaching a conclusion that the explanation for the coincidence proffered by the party seeking to tender the evidence was more probable than an alternative hypothesis. Each of these approaches go beyond what is required by the terms of s 98(1)(b) of the Act and would involve the judge usurping the fact-finding role of the jury.

In this appeal the Crown has conceded that, in performing the task under s 98, a trial Judge may, in an appropriate case, have regard to an alternative explanation arising on the evidence. The Crown, however, insisted that, in so doing, the trial Judge is restricted to examining whether the Crown hypothesis has cogency, that is, whether the Crown evidence is capable of being regarded as significant in its ability to prove the Crown case. If the coincidence evidence, either by itself or having regard to other evidence in the Crown case, positively and forcefully suggested an explanation consistent with innocence, then the coincidence evidence could scarcely be regarded as important or of consequence in proving the fact or facts in issue. What is required is this: the trial Judge must ask whether the possibility of such an alternative explanation substantially alters his (or her) view as to the significant capacity of the Crown evidence, if accepted, to establish the fact in issue. Does the alternative possibility, in the Judge’s view, rob the evidence of its otherwise cogent capacity to prove the Crown’s case? If it does not, the trial judge may safely conclude that the evidence has significant probative value.

In a practical sense, there are two avenues of approach to be taken. First, in examining the coincidence evidence (together with other material already in evidence or to be adduced) the trial Judge is required to ask whether there emerges, from a consideration of all the Crown evidence, a possible explanation inconsistent with guilt. For regard to be had to the alternative explanation, it must be a real possibility, not a fanciful one. It must be a broad or overarching possibility, capable of being stated in general terms, even though it may derive from an individual piece or pieces of evidence or the evidence taken as a whole.

Secondly, the trial Judge must ask whether that possibility substantially alters his (or her) view as to the otherwise significant capacity of the coincidence evidence to establish the fact or facts in issue. Of course, if the trial Judge has already concluded that the coincidence evidence does not reach that level of significance in terms of its capacity, he will have rejected the evidence in terms of s 98. In that situation, the possibility of an alternative inference may, for the time being, be set to one side. Later in the trial, when the evidence has concluded, that possibility will become a matter for the jury to assess and determine when it comes to consider whether the Crown has proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.

The Crown, in making its concession, however, stressed that at no stage in this process was the trial Judge required or entitled to assess the actual weight of any part of the evidence, or to make any actual assessment concerning the probabilities of any alternative theory. Nor was the trial judge required or entitled to make a comparison of the Crown theory and the probabilities of any alternative theory. This proposition appears consistent with established authority. Any attempt by the trial Judge to anticipate the actual weight the jury would attach to the evidence is prohibited, as I have explained.

What is important to recognise, in my opinion, is that this process of reasoning and the drawing of the inferences (that the person did the act or had the state of mind) is for the tribunal of fact: see DSJ v R; NS v R [2012] NSWCCA 9. Part of that process involves findings of fact. Did the two (or more) events occur? Were there relevant similarities? Where the party tendering the evidence relies upon a number of asserted similarities, the tribunal of fact must identify which, if any, of those similarities have been established. Before asking itself the penultimate question — is it improbable that the two events occurred coincidentally? — it must discard any asserted similarities not established.

The task for the judge in determining the admissibility of evidence that would permit the jury to undertake that reasoning process, and draw the ultimate inference, is what is presently in issue. Provided the evidence is such that would permit the jury, acting reasonably, to reach that conclusion or draw that inference, the evidence could be held to have significant probative value. It is a question of the capacity of the evidence to have that effect: DSJ at [8], [11], [55]. Subject to s 101, the evidence would, following that reasoning, be admissible.

The factual underpinnings of the s 98 decision to admit or reject coincidence evidence are:

• that there is evidence capable of establishing the occurrence of two or more events; and

• that there is evidence capable of establishing similarities in the two or more events; or

• that there is evidence capable of establishing similarities in the circumstances in which two or more events occurred;

• that there is evidence capable of establishing both similarities in the two or more events and similarities in the circumstances in which the two events occurred.

In a case in which it is found that there is such evidence, then, in my opinion, the correct process in the determination of the admission of evidence under s 98 involves a series of steps, as follows:

• the first step is to identify the “particular act of a person” or the “particular state of mind of a person” that the party tendering the evidence seeks to prove;

• the second step is to identify the “two or more events” from the occurrence of which the party tendering the evidence seeks to prove that the person in question did the “particular act” or had the “particular state of mind”;

• the third step is to identify the “similarities in the events” and/or the ‘similarities in the circumstances in which the events occurred’ by reason of which the party tendering the evidence asserts the improbability of coincidental occurrence of the events;

• the fourth step is to determine whether “reasonable notice” has been given of the intention to adduce the evidence (or, if reasonable notice has not been given, whether a direction under s 100(2) ought to be given, dispensing with the requirement);

• the fifth step is to make an evaluation whether the evidence will, either by itself or in conjunction with other evidence already given or anticipated, “have significant probative value”;

• in a criminal proceeding, if it is determined that the evidence would have “significant probative value”, the sixth step is the determination whether the probative value of the evidence “substantially outweighs” any prejudicial effect it may have on the defendant (s 101(2));

• the sixth step necessarily involves some analysis both of the probative value of the evidence in question and any prejudicial effect it might have: R v RN [2005] NSWCCA 413, and a balancing of the two.

The question is whether there is a real possibility of an alternative explanation inconsistent with the appellant’s guilt, based on the evidence together with the other evidence in the Crown case. If there is such an alternative possibility, then that may rob the evidence of its significant probative value, in the manner described by Bathurst CJ and Whealy JA in DSJ at [10] and [78]–[81].

[G]iven that s 98 is addressing evidence that is put forward to invite the trier of fact to engage in a particular form of probabilistic reasoning, it necessarily follows that the assessment of whether the evidence of the relevant events has either probative or significant probative value requires a consideration of the combined effect of all the relevant similarities. Unless they are all considered then the “basis” upon which the evidence is put forward, namely that it is “improbable that the events occurred coincidentally” and that instead the events are explicable by reason of the particular act or state of mind sought to be proved, such as the involvement of the same offender or offenders in all the events, cannot be properly addressed.

[I]t is not to the point merely to identify various dissimilarities. One way of explaining why this is so is to observe that one incident occurred on a Monday, the other on a Friday. That particular dissimilarity has no bearing whatsoever on the process of inferential reasoning that it permitted.

The questions posed by ss 98 and 101 ultimately turn on a mode of reasoning based on the improbability that something was a coincidence. That mode of reasoning is not displaced by the fact that the two (or more) events bear some dissimilarities. Two (or more) events will always be dissimilar in some respects. The question is whether the dissimilarities undercut the improbability of something being a coincidence.

The fact that the evidence reveals “striking similarities”, “unusual features”, “underlying unity”, “system” or “pattern” such that it raises, as a matter of common experience and logic, the objective improbability of some event having occurred other than as alleged by the prosecution.

Section 101 will apply with much greater force when the only way in which evidence is said to be relevant is because of tendency or coincidence reasoning (for example, a sexual assault case where evidence is called of another complainant in respect of whom no charges have been laid). Where, as here, the evidence which was sought to be used for coincidence and tendency reasoning was (a) relevant to other charges which were able to be determined fairly at the same trial and (b) not said to be inherently unfairly prejudicial in its own right, then it is apt to be difficult for s 101 to apply so as to preclude tendency or coincidence reasoning based on it.