Hansen v The Queen

The applicant, Hansen, sought special leave to appeal to the High Court of Australia against a decision of the Court of Criminal Appeal. The dispute concerned the inconsistency of jury verdicts in relation to charges of rape and incest. Hansen had been charged with offences alleged to have occurred in early 1984 and a separate event in late 1986. The jury acquitted him of the latter charges but convicted him of the former.

The primary legal issue before the High Court was whether the jury's verdicts were so inconsistent that they could not stand together. This required the court to consider the trial judge's summing up, particularly the direction given to the jury regarding the timeframe for the offences. The Crown had tied the alleged offences to a specific period between 30 November 1986 and 1 January 1987.

The Court of Criminal Appeal had found that the jury might have believed the complainant's account of events but were not prepared to find that they occurred within the specified timeframe, leading to the acquittals on the later charges. The High Court considered the applicant's submission that the jury could have found the complainant's evidence unreliable regarding the precise date of the offences, particularly the 30th of November, which was the start of the specified period. The applicant argued that the jury could have concluded that the events did not occur within the defined window, even if they believed the complainant's general account. The court noted that the applicant bore a heavy onus to demonstrate that no reasonable jury, properly applying their minds to the facts, could have reached the conclusion of inconsistent verdicts.