New Zealand Case Law: Decisions & Judgments | LexChat

New Zealand Case Law

Evidence act 2006 s45 admissibility
  • 30 Apr 2018

    R v PETERS [2018] NZHC 855

    Citation
    [2018] NZHC 855
    Court
    High Court

    Section 45(4)(f) applies because the identification arose from a chance meeting; therefore there was 'good reason' not to follow a formal procedure and the onus shifted to the defendant to prove unreliability on the balance of probabilities. The defendant failed to discharge that burden: despite some inconsistencies and minor conflation with a guilty co-offender, the witness had sufficient opportunity to observe, produced a contemporaneous photograph, and the identification is supported by corroborative circumstantial evidence. Any prejudice is minimal and outweighed by probative value. Conse…

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