R v Steven Wayne Hillier

In the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) applied for the Court to consider the admissibility of certain evidence available to be adduced on the trial of Steven Wayne Hillier (the accused) for the alleged murder of Ana Louise Hardwick. The application was not strictly within the scope of s 189 of the Evidence Act 1995 (Cth), but both parties considered it useful for the Court to provide provisional views on the admissibility of the evidence. The Court considered the application and provided its tentative views on the admissibility of the evidence but made no definitive rulings. The Court considered the evidence of the relationship between the deceased and the accused, the admissibility of first-hand hearsay, the general admissibility of relationship evidence, the deceased’s expressed fear of the accused, and evidence denying access to the deceased’s house. The Court found that the evidence of the relationship between the deceased and the accused was relevant to motive but could not be admitted unless it was related to the time after separation. The Court found that first-hand hearsay would only be admitted if it was made shortly after the asserted fact and in circumstances that made it unlikely that the representation was a fabrication. The Court found that relationship evidence was not admissible as general background evidence but only if it was directly relevant to a fact in issue. The Court found that evidence of the deceased’s fear of the accused was not admissible to prove that the accused killed the deceased or that he acted toward her with a certain intent. The Court found that evidence denying access to the deceased’s house was open to the prosecution to adduce but would need to be limited to that purpose and still meet the s 65 and s 72 tests of the Evidence Act as well as not invoking ss 135, 136 or 137 of the Evidence Act.