In a criminal appeal on unreasonable verdict review, the appellant challenged an appellate acquittal entered after a trial conviction for indecent assault based largely on testimonial evidence from events decades earlier.
The Court held that appellate intervention is limited to verdicts no reasonable trier could render or findings incompatible with uncontradicted evidence, and that credibility findings are owed deference unless unsustainable on any reasonable view of the record.
The majority concluded the trial judge’s credibility assessment and reconciliation of conflicting testimony were reasonably open on the evidence.
The appellate court was found to have impermissibly substituted its own assessment.
The appeal was allowed and the conviction restored, with dissent.
