R v Irwin

In the case of R v Irwin, the appellant appealed against his conviction for grievous bodily harm. The appellant argued that the prosecution had failed to negate the defences of accident and self-defence beyond reasonable doubt. The appellant further contended that the complainant's evidence was inconsistent and irreconcilable with the evidence of other witnesses at trial. The appellant argued that the verdict was unsafe and unsatisfactory and that a verdict of guilty was not reasonably open to the jury on the whole of the evidence. The court was required to determine whether the verdict was unreasonable or insupportable having regard to the evidence.

The court found that the reliability of the complainant's evidence was starkly brought into question by the medical evidence and was inconsistent with the evidence of other witnesses at trial. However, the court found that it was rationally open to the jury to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt of the appellant's guilt. The court found that the medical evidence was not inconsistent with the appellant's account and that it was most likely that the complainant broke his hip after the appellant pushed him with a considerable degree of force, causing him to fall heavily onto the tiled shopping centre surface. The court found that the jury were entitled to reject the appellant's account that the complainant was the instigator and aggressor. The court also found that the jury were entitled to reject the notion of self-defence beyond reasonable doubt. However, the court found that the question of accident under s 23(1)(b) was more nuanced. The court found that the medical evidence raised the possibility that neither the appellant nor an ordinary person could reasonably have foreseen that the complainant would suffer an injury such as a fracture of his hip. However, the court found that the evidence of the doctors and of the appellant, in its view, clearly raised for the jury's consideration the possibility that an injury like the hip fracture was foreseeable as something which could happen, disregarding possibilities that were no more than remote or speculative.

The appeal was dismissed.