The appellant was convicted of aggravated robbery. The circumstances of the offence were that a robbery took place at a club in the course of which a firearm was used and a man was injured. Subsequently a used cartridge case was discovered at the scene of the robbery and was compared with a similar round fired from a gun with which quite certainly the appellant was connected.
A ballistics expert gave evidence that the used round was in his opinion fired from that very gun. However he did not support his opinion by any test material or photographs.
Held:
(i) When an expert gives evidence it is the duty of the court to come to a finding and the expert's evidence is merely there to assist the court in coming to its conclusion.
(ii) Where there are photographs and other test material available to be placed before the court the failure to produce that material is fatal, and then the opinion of the expert should not be accepted.
