Tran v The Queen

Tran was charged with three counts of aggravated sexual assault. The trial judge found him guilty of all three counts and sentenced him to imprisonment. Tran appealed against his conviction and sentence to the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory. The central issue in the appeal was whether the trial judge erred in admitting evidence of Tran's sexual history with the complainant, which the defence argued was inadmissible and prejudicial. The appeal court held that the trial judge did indeed err in admitting this evidence, as it was not relevant to the case and had the potential to unfairly prejudice the jury against Tran. The court found that this error was significant enough to potentially have affected the outcome of the trial. Given this, the appeal court allowed Tran's appeal against his conviction, quashed his convictions and sentence, and ordered that the matter be set down for retrial before a judge of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory.