R v Nona

Dennis Michael Nona was on trial for criminal offences, including sexual assault, and faced a re-trial. The court had to decide on the admissibility of audio recordings of the evidence given by three witnesses during the original trial, who were now unavailable to testify. The witnesses, JG, HT, and AD, had suffered from depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation at the time of the original trial, making it unsafe for them to testify again.

The legal issues before the court involved the admissibility of hearsay evidence under the Evidence Act 2011 (ACT). The court had to determine whether the witnesses' unavailability and the risk of serious mental harm to them if they were to testify again met the criteria for admitting the audio recordings under section 65(3) of the Act. The court also had to consider the reliability and probity of the audio recordings as evidence.

The court found that the witnesses' unavailability was due to their serious mental health conditions, which posed an unacceptable risk of serious mental harm if they were required to testify again. The court concluded that the audio recordings met the criteria for admission as evidence under section 65(3) of the Act, as the witnesses were unavailable due to circumstances beyond their control and the recordings were reliable and probative. The court therefore admitted the audio recordings of the witnesses' evidence as evidence in the re-trial.

The court's orders were that the audio recordings of the evidence of JG, HT, and AD given in the trial of Dennis Michael Nona on 30 and 31 July 2012 be admitted as evidence in his re-trial. The re-trial was scheduled to commence on 1 December 2014.