Booth v The The Queen

The applicant was convicted of two counts of sexual assault and acquitted on two other counts. The appeal against conviction was heard by the High Court of Australia. The central issue in the appeal was whether the jury's verdicts were inconsistent and unreasonable. The court had to determine if the victim's evidence was sufficiently precise to allow the jury to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the applicant knew the victim did not consent to the sexual acts on the counts that led to acquittal.

The court considered whether the verdicts could be reconciled by acknowledging the imprecision in the victim's evidence regarding the occurrence of the sexual acts on the counts that led to acquittal. The court concluded that the jury was reasonably satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the applicant knew the victim did not consent to the sexual acts on the counts that led to conviction. The court held that the verdicts could be reconciled and were not inconsistent, given the imprecision in the victim's evidence. The court found that it was reasonably open to the jury to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the applicant knew the victim did not consent to the sexual acts on the counts that led to conviction.

The appeal against conviction was dismissed. The convictions for the two counts of sexual assault were upheld.