Awad v The Queen

The appellant, Awad, was convicted by a jury in the County Court of Victoria of attempting to possess a commercial quantity of an unlawfully imported border-controlled drug, specifically cocaine. He appealed against his conviction and sentence to the Court of Appeal. The central issue was whether the trial judge erred in directing the jury regarding evidence of the accused. Specifically, the court needed to determine whether the judge's direction contravened section 44J of the Jury Directions Act 2015 and whether this constituted a substantial miscarriage of justice. The court also had to consider whether the error was material and whether it was necessary to examine whether the verdict of guilt was inevitable, unreasonable, and unsupported by the evidence.

The Court of Appeal examined the relevant provisions of the Jury Directions Act 2015 and relevant case law, including Baini v The Queen, Kalbasi v Western Australia, and R v Buckley. The court found that the trial judge did not err in directing the jury and that there was no contravention of section 44J. The court concluded that the verdict of guilt was not inevitable or unreasonable, and it was supported by the evidence. The appeal against the conviction was dismissed. The court also refused the application for leave to appeal against the sentence and the application for an extension of time, finding that the trial judge did not err in characterising the applicants as senior members of an organisation or in considering the principle of parity in sentencing.

The final orders of the Court of Appeal were to dismiss the appeal against conviction and sentence, and to refuse the application for leave to appeal against sentence and the application for an extension of time. The appellant's conviction and sentence were upheld, and no further appeals were permitted.