R v Singh (No 4)

The appeal in R v Singh (No 4) was brought before the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal. The appellant, Mr Singh, was convicted of the murder of his wife, Ms Kaur. The dispute centred around the admissibility of hearsay statements made by the deceased, which were alleged to be contemporaneous representations about the intention, knowledge, or state of mind of the accused. The statements included allegations of financial and physical abuse by the accused, which were admitted at trial under the first-hand hearsay exceptions in s 65(2) and s 66A of the Evidence Act 1995 (NSW).

The primary legal issues the court had to address were whether the hearsay exceptions applied to the statements made by the deceased and, if so, whether the circumstances under which the statements were made rendered them unlikely to be fabrications and highly probable to be reliable. The court also needed to determine if the statements were relevant to establishing the accused’s state of mind and intention, which were critical to the prosecution’s case.

The Court of Criminal Appeal examined the provisions of s 65(2) and s 66A of the Evidence Act, focusing on the meaning of “circumstances” and whether they made the representations reliable. It considered the nature of the statements, the relationship between the deceased and the accused, and the context in which the statements were made. The court found that the statements were admissible as they were made in circumstances that made it highly probable they were reliable and relevant to the accused’s state of mind and intention at the time of the alleged murder. Consequently, the conviction was upheld.

The final orders of the Court of Criminal Appeal were to dismiss the appeal and confirm the conviction of the appellant for the murder of his wife.