Charles Didei v The State

• Jurisdiction: Papua New Guinea
• Citation: [1990] PNGLR 458
• Date: 02 November 1990
• Court: Supreme Court
• Year: 1990

Supreme Court: Kapi DCJ, Sheehan J, Salika J

Judgment Delivered: 2 November 1990

1 Criminal law—appeal—rape—evidence of complainant uncorroborated—need for Court to warn itself and to record the warning of danger of convicting on uncorroborated evidence of complainant alone

2 CRIMINAL LAW—Particular offences—Rape—Evidence—Corroboration—Warning on uncorroborated evidence—Failure of judge to want and record warning—Miscarriage of justice.

3 CRIMINAL LAW—Appeal and new trial—Miscarriage of justice—Rape—Conviction on uncorroborated evidence—Failure of judge to warn and record warning—Miscarriage of justice.

Held:

The failure by a trial judge to warn himself of the danger of accepting the uncorroborated evidence of the prosecutrix in a rape trial and the failure to record that he has so warned himself constitutes a miscarriage of justice sufficient to warrant a retrial.

McCallum v Buibui [1975] PNGLR 439 at 445 and Chiu Nang Hong v Public Prosecutor [1964] 1 WLR 1279 at 1285, considered and applied.

Chiu Nang Hong v Public Prosecutor [1964] 1 WLR 1279, McCallum v Buibui [1975] PNGLR 439 and R v Trigg [1963] 1 WLR 305 referred to

Appeal

This was an appeal against conviction on a charge of rape.

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By the Court: The appellant was convicted on a charge that he on 7 December 1986, at Mt Hagen, committed rape upon one Dambo Steven. He now appeals against...