Judgment Approved by the court for handing down.
DPP v Bussetti
YouTube that he was shown was his. At a time when he was
fully represented, he formally accepted sending the video
recording to WhatsApp. This was so, despite it being obvious
that others were using their telephones to record or photograph
the incident as well. He did not take a different stance in the
witness box.
33 These matters are the basis of the DPP’s contention that it was
not open to the Chief Magistrate to find that she could not be
sure that his video recording, even if not the actual recording on
YouTube, was, if not identical, then materially similar.
...
37 ………..[T]he admissions and summary of the Respondent’s
interview should be summarised in the body of the case or
appended as an attachment.”
20.
The Chief Magistrate stated an amended case on 30 December 2020. This attached the
video she had seen, the admissions and the interview summary, and included the
following:“u. I am asked to give the reasons for the factual conclusion
set out in question 2. Unfortunately, the evidence of the
Respondent had not focussed on the point. At the Case
Management stage of the case, the defendant had not made any
signed admissions that in interview the police had shown him the
video he had taken. In any event, the PET form filled in by the
Crown was not in evidence. In the police interview the
Respondent had not confirmed beyond doubt that it was his
video, he said he believed it to be.
v. The most difficult point was whether the signed admissions
agreed at a time before the subsequent disclosure was made at
the end of the case, should be the basis for a finding that the
Respondent was guilty of the charge. Had the disclosure been
made sooner, the Respondent would have been asked in terms
whether he could say it was the video that he had taken and
uploaded on the WhatsApp groups. The timing of the disclosure
meant he could not be asked about this.
w. The Respondent was not in the video and that might have been
an indication he was filming but again there were 30 people at
the party but many fewer in the film.. In the circumstances, I
thought it more likely than not that his film was the one I had
seen but because of the lack of clear evidence on the point, I
found I was not sure whether the video seen at the trial was the
Respondent’s.
x. As to the second point, whether I could be sure the video
filmed by the Respondent was similar to the one seen in court,