205 In summary and without wishing to be exhaustive, a court must be cautious before treating a lie as an implied admission or evidence of a consciousness of guilt and, in particular, bear in mind the following: (1) a witness cannot corroborate himself or herself so that a lie of an accused or party proved to be a lie by reason of the witness' evidence cannot be used to corroborate the witness' evidence (Edwards per Deane, Dawson and Gaudron JJ at 210); (2) it is difficult to take a false denial of guilt and conclude that it amounts to an implied admission of guilt and that is so self-evidently, but also because it would involve circular reasoning or the prosecution pulling itself up by its own bootstraps (Gionfriddo & Faure v R (1989) 50 A Crim R 327 at 332–333 per Crockett and O'Bryan JJ) or it gives rise to the prospect of the Court not recognising both the Crown's onus and standard of proof (Mercer v R (1993) 67 A Crim R 91 at 98 per Hunt CJ at CL); and (3) the fact-finder must bear in mind and consider that there may be reasons for the telling of a lie apart from a realisation of guilt (Edwards at 211 per Deane, Dawson and Gaudron JJ).
Other Matters
206 I have addressed other matters such as the principles relevant to consciousness of guilt by reason of conduct other than lies and the principles relevant to collusion between witnesses and contamination of a witness' evidence in Section 12 of this Part. I have also referred to authorities concerning identification evidence (see, for example, [700] and [1361]).
Section 2 — Whiskey 108
Introduction and Background
207 The respondents contend that the applicant's involvement in two murders at Whiskey 108 establishes the substantial truth of Imputations 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 9.
208 The Particulars of Truth with respect to the mission to Whiskey 108 on 12 April 2009 are as follows:
Incident on Easter Sunday 2009
(40) On or about 12 April 2009 the Applicant and the troop of which he was a member conducted a mission providing commentary and sniper support to the infantry who were trying to get across a river.
(41) In or about the late afternoon the Applicant and the troop of which he was a member were instructed to assault a compound code-named Whiskey 108. The Applicant's patrol was one of the patrols responsible for conducting the assault.
