Allingham v The Queen

Gavin James Allingham applied to the High Court of Australia for special leave to appeal a decision of the Court of Criminal Appeal of Queensland. Allingham had been convicted of rape by a jury and sentenced to four years imprisonment. His appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeal, based solely on the ground that evidence of the complainant's virginity was wrongly admitted at trial, was dismissed by a majority. The Attorney-General's appeal against the sentence was also dismissed.

The legal issues before the High Court concerned the admissibility of evidence of the complainant's virginity at common law, and whether such evidence was excluded by Queensland's rape shield legislation. The Court of Criminal Appeal, by majority, had found the evidence relevant to the issue of consent, while a dissenting judge considered it irrelevant. The applicant argued that virginity was irrelevant to consent in circumstances where the complainant alleged abduction and rape.

The High Court considered the admissibility of the evidence at common law and its interaction with the rape shield legislation. The applicant did not contend that the legislation excluded the evidence if it was otherwise admissible at common law. A specific aspect raised was whether the evidence of virginity had a special relevance due to a conflict of fact concerning the complainant's assertion of being on the pill. The applicant argued that evidence of virginity was distinct from evidence going to the complainant's credit, such as a denial of being on the pill, and that it was admitted at trial on the basis of relevance to consent.