Lund v Davies

Eric Louis Lund has appealed against five convictions from the Magistrates Court of Western Australia. The appeal was heard by Allanson J in the Supreme Court of Western Australia. The appeal was allowed in part. The conviction of the appellant on the charge of burglary was set aside. The conviction and sentence on the charge of aggravated assault was set aside, and the charge was dismissed. The appeal against the convictions on the remaining three charges was dismissed. The first ground of appeal was that the magistrate erred in law and in fact in finding that the complainant had withdrawn her consent for the appellant to re-enter her premises and in finding that the complainant had communicated that consent to the appellant. The second ground was that the magistrate erred in law and in fact in failing to consider whether the prosecution had rebutted the appellant's defence of honest but mistaken belief and whether the prosecution had rebutted the appellant's defence of sudden and extraordinary emergency. The third ground was that the magistrate erred in law in refusing an adjournment to enable the appellant to adduce expert evidence. The court found that the magistrate had erred in law in failing to consider the appellant's defence of emergency. The court found that the evidence of the complainant was not credible enough to prove the case against the appellant. The court found that the magistrate had not erred in law in refusing the adjournment.