R v May

The appellant was charged and convicted in the Supreme Court of New South Wales on various counts relating to child sexual abuse and possession of child abuse material. The appellant was convicted on five counts of indecent treatment of a child under 12 and seven counts of possession of a child abuse computer game. The appellant appealed against the conviction, arguing that the trial judge erred in not severing the counts on the indictment that related to maintaining a sexual relationship with a child and indecent treatment of a child from the counts that related to possession of child abuse computer games. The appellant further contended that the verdict was unreasonable due to discrepancies between the evidence of internet chat usage and the appellant's telephone and work records.

The court considered whether the trial judge erred in not severing the counts on the indictment. The court noted that the appellant was charged with maintaining a sexual relationship with a child, indecent treatment of a child under 12, and possession of child abuse computer games. The court held that the trial judge should have severed the maintaining and indecent treatment charges from the possession of child abuse computer games charges as they were separate and distinct offences that could have caused embarrassment or prejudice to the appellant. The court further considered whether the verdict was unreasonable and found that there were discrepancies in the evidence that undermined the reliability of the evidence, and as such, the verdict was unreasonable.

The court allowed the appeal and ordered separate re-trials of the remaining counts on which the appellant was convicted. The court ordered that the indecent treatment counts, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 15 be tried in one trial and counts 16-22 be tried in another. The court held that the appellant was entitled to a fair trial and that the errors made in the original trial could not be rectified by any other means.