R v Keli LANE [No 17]

HIS HONOUR : It is necessary to give a ruling on the matter that the Crown has raised, that is the issue whether there is any material in the evidence that would warrant, in this trial, the issue of infanticide under section 22A of the Crimes Act 1900 being left before the jury.

The Crown has submitted that there is no evidence that would warrant that course being taken. Mr Chapple agrees with this submission and indicates that, for his part, he would not embrace the possibility of that issue being raised before the jury. He will not raise it in the defence case and he has not raised it during the Crown case. Nevertheless, the court has an independent obligation to scrutinise the evidence, even where a matter has been abandoned by the defence or not raised by the defence, so in that respect I have considered the whole of the evidence in the Crown case and I am satisfied that I should not leave for the consideration of the jury any issue that relates to infanticide.