R v GAM (No 2)

The parties involved in the case were the Crown, represented by the Director of Public Prosecutions, and the appellant, GAM. The dispute pertained to the appellant's conviction and whether the Court of Appeal could consider a further application for leave to appeal, following a previous refusal based on the merits. The matter was heard by the Court of Appeal, which had to determine whether the new evidence presented by the appellant was sufficient to warrant reconsideration of the earlier decision.

The legal issues before the court centred on the power of the Court of Appeal to entertain a second application for leave to appeal against a conviction, subsequent to a previous application that had been refused on its merits. The crux of the matter was whether the existence of "fresh evidence" suggesting that critical evidence given at trial was unreliable could empower the Court of Appeal to "re-open" the previous application. The court was required to interpret sections 574, 567, 568, and 584 of the Crimes Act 1958, particularly in relation to the status of applications for "leave to appeal" and "appeals" within Part VI of the Act.

The Court of Appeal considered the statutory provisions and concluded that section 574 of the Crimes Act 1958, by itself, did not empower the Court to re-open a previous application for leave to appeal on the basis of fresh evidence. The court held that the statutory scheme of the Act distinguished between applications for leave to appeal and the appeals themselves, and that the provisions did not allow for the reconsideration of a refused application solely based on new evidence. Consequently, the court dismissed the application for leave to appeal, affirming the earlier decision.

No further orders were made by the court.