New South Wales Consolidated Acts

CRIMINAL PROCEDURE ACT 1986 - SECT 150

150 Notice of alibi

(1) This section applies only to trials on indictment.

(2) An accused person may not, without the leave of the court, adduce evidence in support of an alibi unless, before the end of the prescribed period, he or she gives notice of particulars of the alibi to the Director of Public Prosecutions and files a copy of the notice with the court.

(3) Without limiting subsection (2), the accused person may not, without the leave of the court, call any other person to give evidence in support of an alibi unless--

(a) the notice under that subsection includes the other person's name and address or, if the other person's name or address is not known to the accused person at the time he or she gives notice, any information in his or her possession that might be of material assistance in finding the other person, and

(b) if the other person's name or address is not included in the notice, the court is satisfied that the accused person before giving notice took, and thereafter continued to take, all reasonable steps to ensure that the other person's name or address would be ascertained, and

(c) if the other person's name or address is not included in the notice, but the accused person subsequently discovers the other person's name or address or receives other information that might be of material assistance in finding the other person, he or she immediately gives notice of the name, address or other information, and

(d) if the accused person is notified by or on behalf of the Crown that the other person has not been traced by the name or address given by the accused person, he or she immediately gives notice of any information that might be of material assistance in finding the other person and that is then in his or her possession or, on subsequently receiving any such information, immediately gives notice of it.

(4) The court may not refuse leave under this section if it appears to the court that, on the committal for trial of the accused person, he or she was not informed by the committing Magistrate of the requirements of subsections (2), (3) and (7) and, for that purpose, a statement in writing by the committing Magistrate that the accused person was informed of those requirements is evidence that the accused person was so informed.

(5) Any evidence tendered to disprove an alibi may, subject to any direction by the court, be given before or after evidence is given in support of the alibi.

(6) Any notice purporting to be given under this section on behalf of the accused person by his or her Australian legal practitioner is, unless the contrary is proved, to be taken to have been given with the authority of the accused person.

(7) A notice under this section must be given in writing to the Director of Public Prosecutions, and may be given by delivering it to the Director, by leaving it at the Director's office or by sending it in a letter addressed to the Director at the Director's office.

(8) In this section--

"evidence in support of an alibi" means evidence tending to show that, by reason of the presence of the accused person at a particular place or in a particular area at a particular time, the accused person was not, or was unlikely to have been, at the place where the offence is alleged to have been committed at the time of its alleged commission.

"prescribed period" means the period commencing at the time of the accused person's committal for trial and ending 56 days before the trial is listed for hearing.