R v F, AD

The appeal concerned a defendant convicted of sexual offences against his wife and two sons. The primary dispute on appeal related to the admissibility of evidence concerning allegations of adult sexual offending, which the defendant argued should not have been admitted as it was not cross-admissible with evidence of childhood abuse. The matter was heard in the District Court, with the appeal being determined by Gray, Sulan, and Lovell JJ.

The legal issues before the appellate court included whether the trial judge erred in ruling that evidence of the complainants' adult sexual abuse allegations was cross-admissible with their childhood abuse allegations. This involved an examination of section 34P of the *Evidence Act 1929* (SA), which governs the admissibility of discreditable conduct evidence. Specifically, the court had to determine if the probative value of the evidence, for a permissible use, substantially outweighed its prejudicial effect, and whether the permissible use could be sufficiently separated from any impermissible use to avoid appreciable risk of prejudice. The defendant also contended that the judge's rulings created such confusion that the jury could not properly reason through the evidence.

The appellate court dismissed the appeal against conviction. They found that the trial judge had correctly applied section 34P of the *Evidence Act 1929* (SA) in admitting the evidence of adult offending. The court reasoned that the evidence of adult offending had a sufficient degree of similarity and unity with the evidence of childhood abuse to warrant its admission for a permissible purpose, and that the probative value substantially outweighed any prejudicial effect. The court also found that the permissible use of the evidence could be kept separate from any impermissible use.

However, the appellate court granted the Director permission to appeal against the sentence imposed. They set aside the original sentence and, applying the principle of totality to avoid a "crushing" sentence, imposed a single term of imprisonment of 20 years with a non-parole period of 12 years.