R v Campbell

The appellant, Campbell, appeals against her conviction for causing the death of a three-month-old child, Alexandra Whelan, through shaking and/or contact injury to the brain. The appellant was engaged by the child's parents to look after her and her sisters. On 1 February 2002, while the appellant was caring for the child, she called an ambulance reporting that the child had "gone funny". Upon the father's return, he found Alexandra unconscious in the back of an ambulance. Medical evidence indicated that the child had suffered severe brain injuries consistent with abusive head trauma, not accidental falls or injuries from a dog. The appellant claimed that the child had fallen while she was carrying her, resulting in an accidental injury.

The primary legal issues were whether the appellant's account of the incident was credible and whether her lies about the circumstances of the injury could be used as evidence of her guilt. The appellant argued that the jury should not have been allowed to consider her lies as indicative of her guilt, as they were not directly related to the cause of the child's injuries. The Crown argued that the lies demonstrated the appellant's consciousness of guilt, which was relevant to her credibility as a witness.

The court held that while the appellant's lies were relevant to her credibility, they could not be used as substantive evidence of her guilt. The jury needed to be properly instructed to avoid conflating the lies with the evidence of the actual cause of the child's injuries. The court found that the appellant's account of an accidental fall was inconsistent with the medical evidence of the child's injuries. The jury was properly instructed to consider the lies in the context of the appellant's credibility but not as direct evidence of her guilt for the offence. The appeal was dismissed, and the conviction was upheld.

The court's final order was that the appeal against the conviction was dismissed, and the conviction for causing death by dangerous conduct was upheld.