Summary

Appellant’s younger brother, accused 2, was charged with the murder of appellant’s wife - Common cause that killing perpetrated only by accused 2 who pleaded guilty at trial - Appellant pleading not guilty but convicted on basis of common purpose and sentenced to 18 years imprisonment;

Appeal against conviction and sentence - Indictment not sufficiently informative that Crown relied for criminal liability on common purpose;

Held: failure of indictment to make any reference to reliance on common purpose by Crown in violation of appellant’s right to a fair trial and prejudicial to him- Conviction quashed and sentence set aside - Director of Public Prosecutions left to decide whether to re-institute prosecution - in event of prosecution de novo trial to be before a different judge.

CASE SUMMARY:  Criminal law- accused charged with the crime of murder- pleads private defence after initially being the aggressor- situations where the defence can successfully be raised after the accused was the initial aggressor, articulated- Held in this case though being initially the aggressor, the accused was entitled to defend himself when the deceased exceeded the bounds of self- defence- Accused accordingly acquitted of murder.