King v The Queen

Mr King appealed to the High Court of Australia against his conviction for two counts of culpable driving causing death, contrary to section 318(1) of the Crimes Act 1958 (Vic). The appeal concerned the trial judge's directions to the jury regarding the alternative verdict of dangerous driving causing death, pursuant to section 319(1) of the Act. The Crown cross-appealed, challenging the correctness of the Court of Appeal's decision in *R v De Montero* (2009) 25 VR 694.

The central legal issue before the High Court was whether the trial judge had misdirected the jury concerning the elements of dangerous driving causing death, specifically in relation to the degree of risk required and whether the driving needed to be deserving of criminal punishment. The Court was required to determine if the trial judge's directions constituted a departure from the law or a miscarriage of justice, and whether *R v De Montero* should be followed.

The High Court reasoned that while the trial judge's direction that the Crown did not have to prove the driving was "deserving of criminal punishment" for dangerous driving causing death was potentially confusing, it was unlikely to have misled the jury. The Court noted that the jury would have understood that dangerous driving causing death was a criminal offence. Furthermore, the Court found that the trial judge's directions on the degree of risk for dangerous driving, when considered in context with the directions for culpable driving, did not improperly dilute the elements of the more serious offence. The Court also observed that the jury was directed to consider the culpable driving charges first, making it improbable that the directions on the alternative offence would have deflected them from their proper consideration of the primary charges.

The appeal was dismissed.