JO was found not guilty by a jury on one count of each ‘Sexual intercourse without consent’, pursuant to 61I Crimes Act 1900 and ‘Assault commit an act of indecency’, pursuant to 61L Crimes Act 1900.
An application for a certificate pursuant to s 2 of the Costs in Criminal Cases Act 1967 (The Act) was made on JO’s behalf based on the Crown witness to be very substantially lacking credit. A certificate was granted by the District Court Magistrate, under The Act, based on His Honour’s opinion that:
“if the prosecution had, before the proceedings were instituted, been in possession of evidence of all the relevant facts, it would not have been reasonable to institute the proceedings; and
there was no act or omission of the defendant that contributed, or might have contributed, to the institution or continuation of the proceedings.”
This is a great outcome and a huge relief to JO.