Philip David Sturm v The Queen - SC 35/2007

Criminal – appeal against conviction – in relation to appellant’ s conviction for stupefying with intent to facilitate the commission of a crime Court of Appeal held that Crown had to prove not only an intention to facilitate the commission of a crime but also an intention to stupefy – trial directions – whether Court of Appeal erred in finding that trial Judge’s directions were sufficient regarding the intention to stupefy – whether Court of Appeal should have focused on whether directions contained an error of law giving rise to a substantial miscarriage of justice rather than focusing on sufficiency of directions – whether Court of Appeal erred in holding that even if directions were unsatisfactory the appellant was clearly subjectively reckless – whether Court of Appeal erred in finding no error in trial Judge’s direction that the voluntary consumption of drugs and alcohol was irrelevant to stupefying counts – whether Court of Appeal erred in concluding that there was no merit in the suggestion that the verdict on the stupefying count “coloured” the other verdicts.CA 35/2007 4 May 2007