Page 469 - Magistrates Conference 2019
P. 469
THE TEST TO BE SATISFIED – POST R V P - STRIKING
SIMILARITY IS JUST ONE DESCRIPTION/LABEL
Lord Mackay in DPP v P [1991] 2 AC 447
stated that one should not fixate on phrases
such as “striking similarity”, because this “ . . .
is to restrict the operation of the principle in a
way which gives too much effect to a particular
manner of stating it.”
As per the observation by Mason CJ, Deane
and Dawson JJ in Pfennig v R (1995) 182 CLR
461, without such factors as “striking similarity,
underlying unity and other like descriptions of
similar facts . . . . usually the evidence will lack
the requisite force”.
21
