DEFAMATION ACT 1974 - SECT 55 Evidence of criminal offence

This legislation has been repealed.

DEFAMATION ACT 1974 - SECT 55

55 Evidence of criminal offence

(1) This section applies to civil proceedings for defamation and to proceedings for an offence under section 50.

(2) Subject to subsection (4), where there is a question of the truth of an imputation concerning any person, and the commission by that person of a criminal offence is relevant to that question, proof of the conviction by a court of that person for that offence is:

(a) if the conviction is by a court of an Australian State or of the Commonwealth or of a Territory of the Commonwealth, conclusive evidence that the person committed the offence, and

(b) if the conviction is by a court of any other country, evidence that the person committed the offence.

(3) For the purposes of subsection (2):

(a) an issue whether an imputation was a matter of substantial truth, or

(b) a question whether an imputation was true or a matter of substantial truth, being a question arising in relation to damages for defamation,

is a question of the truth of the imputation, but no other question is a question of the truth of an imputation.

(4) Subsection (2) does not have effect if it is shown that the conviction has been set aside.

(5) For the purposes of this section, the contents of a document which is evidence of conviction of an offence, and the contents of an information, complaint, indictment, charge sheet or similar document on which a person is convicted of an offence, are admissible in evidence to identify the facts on which the conviction is based.

(6) Subsection (5) does not affect the admissibility of other evidence to identify the facts on which the conviction is based.

(7) In this section "conviction" includes:

(a) in the case of a court-martial within the meaning of the Courts-Martial Appeals Act 1955 of the Commonwealth a conviction which is or is deemed to be a conviction of a court-martial for the purposes of that Act,

(b) in the case of the Courts-Martial Appeals Tribunal constituted under that Act, a finding of guilty under section 25, 26 or 27 of that Act,

(c) in the case of a court-martial constituted under the Imperial Act called the Army Act 1955 or under the Imperial Act called the Air Force Act 1955 , a finding of guilty which is, or falls to be treated as, a finding of the court duly confirmed, and

(d) in the case of a court-martial constituted under the Imperial Act called the Naval Discipline Act 1957 , a finding of guilty which is, or falls to be treated as, the finding of the court.