Commonwealth Consolidated Acts Commonwealth Consolidated Acts(1) Where the Registrar:
(a) convenes a court martial to try a charge; or
(b) refers a charge to a Defence Force magistrate for trial;
the Registrar must:
(c) inform the accused person of the requirements of subsections (2), (3) and (5); and
(d) give a copy of this section to the accused person.
(2) In a trial of a charge by a court martial or Defence Force magistrate, the accused person shall not, without the leave of the judge advocate of the court martial or the Defence Force magistrate, as the case requires, adduce evidence in support of an alibi or assert in any statement made by him or her otherwise than on oath or affirmation that he or she has an alibi unless, before the end of the period of 14 days commencing on the day of the making of the order convening the court martial or the referring of the charge to the Defence Force magistrate, as the case requires, he or she gives notice of particulars of the alibi.
(3) In a trial of a charge by a court martial or Defence Force magistrate, the accused person shall not, without the leave of the judge advocate of the court martial or the Defence Force magistrate, as the case requires, call a person to give evidence in support of an alibi unless:
(a) the notice given under subsection (2) includes the name and address of the person or, if the name or address of the person is not known to the accused person at the time he or she gives the notice, all information then in his or her possession that may be of material assistance in ascertaining the identity of, or in locating, the person;
(b) if the name or address of the person is not included in the notice--the judge advocate of the court martial or the Defence Force magistrate, as the case may be, is satisfied that, before giving notice, the accused person took, and, after giving the notice, the accused person continued to take, all reasonable steps to ascertain the name and address of the person;
(c) if the name or address of the person is not included in the notice, but the accused person subsequently ascertains the name or address of the person or receives information that may be of material assistance in ascertaining the identity of, or in locating, the person--the accused person forthwith gives notice of the name, address or other information, as the case may be; and
(d) if the accused person is notified by or on behalf of the prosecution that the person has not been found by the name, or at the address, given by the accused person--the accused person forthwith gives notice of all information that is then in his or her possession that may be of material assistance in ascertaining the identity of, or in locating, the person and, if the accused person subsequently receives any such information, the accused person forthwith gives notice of the information.
(4) Evidence to disprove an alibi may, subject to any direction by the judge advocate of a court martial or a Defence Force magistrate, be adduced before or after evidence is adduced in respect of the alibi.
(5) A notice under this section shall be given in writing to the Director of Military Prosecutions and the Registrar.
(6) In this section, evidence in support of an alibi means evidence tending to show that by reason only of the presence of the accused person at a particular place, or in a particular area, at a particular time the accused person was not, or was unlikely to have been, at the place where the service offence is alleged to have been committed at the time of the alleged commission of the service offence.