The science behind Bayley v the Queen (2016)

Eyewitness identification was the principal evidence in DPP v Bayley (2015), in which Adrian Bayley received a jail sentence for the rape and assault of a woman that took place in 2000. Twelve years after the attack, the victim identified Bayley from a photograph seen on Facebook and later in a formal police identification procedure. At the time of the initial Facebook identification the victim knew about Bayley’s involvement in Gillian Meagher’s case. Bayley successfully appealed this conviction in 2016. The Court of Appeal held that the identification evidence in this case had multiple weaknesses and should not have been permitted at the initial trial. In the decision, the Court relied on legal precedents to support their judgement. In this article we review the empirical evidence regarding each of the issues raised by the Court. In addition, we review how the stressfulness of an event can influence the reliability of an identification, and explore why the jury may have rendered a guilty verdict based on the weak identification evidence.