R v M, DV

The Supreme Court of South Australia, constituted by Kourakis CJ, Blue and Lovell JJ, considered an application for permission to appeal against sentence. The appeal concerned a conviction for maintaining an unlawful sexual relationship with a child and persistent sexual abuse of a child.

The central legal issue before the Court was the proper construction of section 50 of the Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935 (SA), which defines the offence of maintaining an unlawful sexual relationship with a child. Specifically, the Court had to determine how the prosecution and the trier of fact should approach the particulars of the unlawful sexual acts constituting the relationship, and the relationship between this offence and other sexual offences committed against the same child.

The Court, with Kourakis CJ and Lovell J adopting a particular construction of section 50, determined that the prosecution was not required to allege the particulars of each unlawful sexual act, nor was the trier of fact required to be satisfied of the particulars of each act, provided they were satisfied as to the general nature or character of those acts. This interpretation differed from that of Blue J. The Court also considered the interaction between convictions for the unlawful sexual relationship offence and individual sexual offences, noting that a person could be convicted of both under certain circumstances.

Permission to appeal was granted, the appeal was allowed, and the original sentence was set aside. The appellant was resentenced to imprisonment for 13 years, with a non-parole period of 7 years, both deemed to have commenced on 7 December 2017.