Alexanderson v The Queen; MacQueen v The Queen

Alexanderson v The Queen and MacQueen v The Queen were appeals to the High Court of Australia concerning the admissibility of evidence obtained by police. The central dispute revolved around whether evidence derived from an unlawfully obtained confession should have been admitted at the appellants' trials.

The High Court was required to determine whether the admission of evidence obtained as a result of an unlawful confession, where the confession itself was excluded, constituted a miscarriage of justice. This involved considering the principles governing the admissibility of derivative evidence and the test for determining whether an error in admitting evidence occasioned a miscarriage of justice.

The Court applied the principle that evidence obtained in consequence of an unlawful act is not automatically inadmissible. Instead, the question is one of fact and degree, requiring a consideration of the connection between the unlawful act and the evidence sought to be admitted. Their Honours noted that the admission of evidence obtained in consequence of an unlawful confession, even if the confession itself is excluded, may still lead to a miscarriage of justice if the jury is likely to be prejudiced by the knowledge of the confession or its contents. The Court found that in both appeals, the admission of the derivative evidence, in circumstances where the unlawful confession was also before the jury, had occasioned a miscarriage of justice.

The appeals were allowed, and the convictions were quashed.