Director of Public Prosecutions Reference No 1 of 2019

HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIAKIEFEL CJ,GAGELER, KEANE, GORDON, EDELMAN, STEWARD AND GLEESON JJDIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONSREFERENCE NO 1 OF 2019Director of Public Prosecutions Reference No 1 of 2019[2021] HCA 26Date of Hearing: 14 May 2021Date of Judgment: 1 September 2021M131/2020ORDER1.Appeal dismissed.  2. The Director of Public Prosecutions (Vic) pay the acquitted person's reasonable costs. On appeal from the Supreme Court of VictoriaRepresentationB F Kissane QC with J C J McWilliams for the appellant (instructed by Office of Public Prosecutions (Vic))D A Dann QC with C T Carr SC for the acquitted person (instructed by C. Marshall & Associates)Notice:  This copy of the Court's Reasons for Judgment is subject to formal revision prior to publication in the Commonwealth Law Reports.CATCHWORDSDirector of Public Prosecutions Reference No 1 of 2019Criminal law – Recklessness – Where s 17 of Crimes Act 1958 (Vic) provides that person who, without lawful excuse, recklessly causes serious injury is guilty of indictable offence – Where Court of Appeal of Supreme Court of Victoria in R v Campbell [1997] 2 VR 585 held that recklessness means person foresaw that serious injury probably will result from act or omission – Where Crimes Act amended following Campbell with significant, substantive and direct effect on s 17 – Where High Court cast doubt on correctness of Campbell in Aubrey v The Queen (2017) 260 CLR 305 – Where accused charged with recklessly causing serious injury under s 17 of Crimes Act – Where trial judge directed jury in relation to recklessness consistently with...