Salmon v The Queen

Salmon appealed his conviction for murder in the Supreme Court of New South Wales. The appeal concerned the admissibility of evidence obtained from a search of the appellant's property. The High Court of Australia was required to determine whether the evidence, which included a firearm and ammunition, was lawfully obtained under the *Crimes Act 1914* (Cth) and therefore admissible in the criminal proceedings.

The central legal issue before the High Court was whether the police had reasonable grounds to suspect that an indictable offence had been, or was being, committed on the premises searched, as required by section 3L of the *Crimes Act 1914*. This required the Court to consider the nature of the information available to the police at the time of the search and whether that information constituted reasonable grounds for suspicion.

The High Court held that the information available to the police did not provide reasonable grounds to suspect that an indictable offence had been committed. The Court reasoned that the information was vague and did not connect the appellant or his property to any specific criminal activity. Consequently, the search was unlawful, and the evidence obtained was inadmissible. The appeal was allowed, the conviction was quashed, and a retrial was ordered.