The appellant appealed from the rejection of an entrapment application following guilty pleas to drug trafficking and related offences.
The Court of Appeal held that the trial judge did not misapprehend the evidence and reasonably rejected the original entrapment theory advanced on the record then before the court.
However, fresh evidence established that a key police agent had perjured himself about his criminal record and raised serious concerns about possible state complicity in that perjury and incomplete disclosure.
Applying the fresh evidence framework, the court concluded the new evidence could reasonably have affected the result of the entrapment hearing.
The convictions were quashed and a new entrapment hearing was ordered, while the guilty pleas and guilty verdicts otherwise stood.
