Donohue v Tasmania

The appeal concerned the admissibility of tendency evidence in a criminal trial. The appellant, Donohue, was charged with inciting others to murder his estranged wife. The Crown sought to adduce evidence of prior occasions where the appellant allegedly made similar propositions to different individuals.

The legal issues before the court were whether the evidence of the appellant's prior conduct towards Mr Hayes, Mr Etchell, and Mr Saxelby constituted admissible tendency evidence under the Uniform Evidence Law. Specifically, the court had to determine if this evidence possessed significant probative value and if its probative value substantially outweighed any prejudicial effect, as required by sections 97(1)(b) and 101(2) of the Evidence Act. The court also considered the cross-admissibility of evidence relating to the alleged approaches to Mr Etchell and Mr Saxelby.

The court reasoned that tendency evidence is admissible if it can rationally affect the assessment of the probability of a fact in issue and has significant probative value. The court noted that when assessing probative value for the purposes of admissibility, the reliability and credibility of the evidence are generally not considered, and it must be assumed that the evidence will be accepted. The court found that the conduct on each occasion relied upon by the Crown was highly similar: the appellant approached individuals he did not know, offered money to kill his estranged wife, and did so for reasons related to gaining custody of his children. This similarity, the court held, gave the evidence significant probative value, supporting an inference that the appellant acted with a similar intention on each occasion. The court also considered that the evidence was necessary to exclude the possibility that the appellant was merely boasting.

The appeal was dismissed.