R v Mmna Ca136/03

In the Court of Appeal of New Zealand, the case of R v MMNA CA 136/03 involved an appeal against the conviction and sentence for the crime of rape. The appellant, a medical doctor, was convicted by a jury in the District Court at Gisborne and was sentenced to eight years imprisonment. The grounds of appeal were the wrongful admission of evidence of previous violence and opinion evidence from the police doctor, as well as alleged errors by the trial judge and defence counsel. The court found that there was no direction to the jury on how they should use the evidence of prior misconduct, and that the Police doctor's expression of opinion on the central issue in the trial was unjustified and unfair. As a result, the appeal was allowed, the conviction was quashed, and the case was directed for a re-trial. The Court admitted the passages in the evidence of Drs Shand and Thomson that were referred to in the judgment.