Every Accused charged with an offence may put forward the defence that they were not present at the time and place the crime is alleged to have occurred. Alibi is Latin for elsewhere. The alibi defence does not need to be disclosed at the time of arrest but the details of the alibi must be provided to the prosecution with enough time for them to investigate prior to trial. If an Accused fails to give sufficient notice of their alibi, the judge or jury “may draw an adverse inference when weighing the alibi evidence”.
In this case, the Accused mentioned a possible alibi defence on the first day of trial and provided details of the alibi to the Crown Attorney on the following day. The Accused’s brother testified that the Accused was with him at the time of the offence. The judge gave the alibi evidence no weight because of the late notice and for being incredulous.