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19
Court of Criminal Appeal 23 May 2000

R v Moffatt [2000] NSWCCA 174 revised - 23

[2000] NSWCCA 174

Also reported as (2000) 112 A Crim R 201
Homicide
CRIMINAL LAW APPEALS APPEAL AGAINST CONVICTION MURDER TRIAL BY JUDGE ALONE ROLE OF COURT OF APPEAL

Citation: R v Moffatt [2000] NSWCCA 174; (2000) 112 A Crim R 201
Court: NSW Court of Criminal Appeal
Date: 23 May 2000
Judge(s): Wood CJ at CL; Foster AJA; Adams J

Background

The appellant was convicted of murder following a judge-alone trial. On the night in question, he and the deceased had consumed large quantities of alcohol, including wine, moselle mixed with water, and methylated spirits. An altercation occurred during which the appellant allegedly struck the deceased several times on the chest with a hammer and manually strangled him.

The deceased was in poor health, suffering from advanced cardiac disease and chronic alcoholism, raising the question of whether he died from the appellant's actions or from an independent cause such as cardiac failure or acute alcohol toxicity. Witnesses from an adjoining unit gave evidence that the appellant came to their door and made statements suggesting he had killed the deceased, and the appellant also made admissions in a subsequent electronically recorded interview with police (an ERISP).

The trial judge convicted the appellant, and he appealed on two grounds: that his admissions should not have been admitted into evidence, and that the evidence did not prove beyond reasonable doubt that his acts caused the death.

  • Whether the appellant's oral admissions to police and his ERISP admissions were properly admitted into evidence, having regard to the reliability of those admissions (including the potential effects of alcohol and the appellant's lack of medical expertise)
  • Whether, where more than one possible cause of death existed, the Crown had proved beyond reasonable doubt that the appellant's acts caused the deceased's death
  • Whether the trial judge applied the correct legal approach to causation where the deceased had a pre-existing constitutional vulnerability

Decision

Admissibility of admissions: The Court held that the admissions had significant probative value and that their admission did not cause unfairness to the appellant. Where evidence suggests the truth of an admission may have been adversely affected, the Crown must prove on the balance of probabilities that this was unlikely. The trial judge's findings adequately addressed the relevant issues under the Evidence Act, even though he did not specifically cite sections 85 and 90, because the admissibility argument had been conducted under sections 135 and 137. The Court also rejected the contention that the admissions were unreliable because the appellant was intoxicated or lacked medical expertise: his observations of the deceased were of the kind any lay person could make.

Causation: The Court confirmed that it is legally incorrect to search for a single "principal" cause of death. Where an accused's contribution to death is established, it is irrelevant that there may be more than one possible cause. The fact that a deceased had a pre-existing condition making him more susceptible to death does not assist a defendant.

Where the precise mechanism of death is "obscure," the question is whether, approached in a common-sense way, the appellant's actions substantially contributed to or accelerated the death. The Court found it was open to the trial judge to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the appellant's attack was the substantial and operating cause of death. The temporal connection between the attack and the deceased's collapse, the deceased's verbal responsiveness immediately before the attack (suggesting he was not already succumbing to alcohol toxicity), and his known tolerance to alcohol all supported that conclusion. Although the autopsy left open several scientific possibilities, when considered alongside the appellant's own admissions, the only reasonable hypothesis was that the attack caused the death.

Orders Made

  • Appeal dismissed
  • Conviction and sentence confirmed

Key Takeaways

  • In dismissing the appeal, the Court of Criminal Appeal confirmed that a defendant's pre-existing constitutional vulnerability does not reduce a perpetrator's criminal responsibility for causing death.
  • The correct causation inquiry is not which cause was the principal or dominant cause of death, but whether the accused's acts made a substantial contribution to the death, even where multiple possible causes exist.
  • Where the mechanism of death is uncertain, a court may approach causation in a common-sense manner by considering all the evidence, including the circumstances immediately preceding and surrounding the death, rather than confining itself to autopsy findings alone.
  • Admissions made by an intoxicated defendant are not automatically unreliable: the Crown must prove on the balance of probabilities that any suggested adverse effect on reliability is unlikely, and observations of a lay character remain capable of being reliable even without medical expertise.
  • The Court of Criminal Appeal, as a court of error, will only intervene in a judge-alone conviction where, after its own independent assessment of the evidence, it concludes the trial judge could not have been satisfied beyond reasonable doubt of guilt.

Legislation and Cases Referenced

Legislation:
- Criminal Appeal Act 1912 (NSW), s 6(1)
- Criminal Procedure Act 1986 (NSW), s 17
- Crimes Act 1900 (NSW), s 424A
- Evidence Act 1995 (NSW), ss 85, 85(2), 86, 90, 135, 136, 137, 142, 189(3)

Cases:
- Royall (1990) 172 CLR 378
- Mamote-Kulang (1964) 111 CLR 62
- Osland (1998) 159 ALR 170
- M (1994) 181 CLR 487
- Puckeridge [1999] HCA 68; (1999) 74 ALJR 373
- Smithers (1977) 24 CCC (2d) 427
- Blaue [1975] 1 WLR 1441
- Hayward (1908) 21 Cox CC 692
- Murton (1862) 3 F & F 492
- Martyr [1962] Qd R 398
- Butcher [1986] VR 43
- McKinnon [1980] 2 NZLR 31
- Pagett (1983) 76 Cr App R 279
- Smith [1959] 2 QB 35
- Hallett [1969] SASR 141
- Hennigan [1971] 3 All ER 133
- Cato [1976] 1 WLR 110
- Evans and Gardiner (No 2) [1976] VR
- Bingapam (1975) 11 SASR 469
- Esposito, CCA (NSW), 20 November 1998 (unreported)
- Kyriakou (1987) 29 A Crim R 50
- Kurtic, CCA (NSW), 26 February 1996 (unreported)
- Jones (1997) 149 ALR 598
- Fleming (1998) 158 ALR 379
- Giam (1999) 104 A Crim R 416
- Gipp (1998) 194 CLR 106