This provision has not been checked by a human. The text below was read automatically from the official PDF and has not yet been verified against it, so it may differ from the provision as published — in its wording, its numbering, or where one provision ends and the next begins. For the authorised text, see legislation.vic.gov.au.
prohibits unfavourable inferences (including an inference of consciousness of guilt or an inference relevant to a party's credibility) being drawn in a criminal proceeding from a failure by a person to answer a question, or respond to a representation, from an investigating official performing functions in connection with the investigation of the commission, or possible commission, of an offence. If the only use that can be made of the evidence of the silence would be to draw such an unfavourable inference, the evidence of the silence itself is inadmissible for that purpose. The application of this clause is limited to the evidence of the silence. A recent Victorian decision regarding the prohibition on the admissibility of silence in the course of selective answering is the unreported Victorian Court of Appeal decision R v Barrett [2007] VSCA 95 (17 May 2007). Further, the clause is not intended to prevent the drawing of adverse inferences from the giving of inconsistent accounts. The clause does not prevent use of the evidence to prove that the party or other person refused to answer the question or respond to the representation if the refusal is a fact in issue in the proceedings.