Now what is it that the prosecution has to prove to the high standard that I have mentioned in the present case? Mr. Park is charged with murder, and the prosecution say that he committed that offence by murdering his wife Carol Park on or about the 17th of July of 1976. You see the charge formally set out in the indictment. You can turn it up. I do not think we have hardly looked at it whilst we have been doing this trial, but the indictment is in document one in your blue folder, and there the charge is set out clearly and shortly.
You may think that there is no doubt that someone murdered Mrs. Park; there is no dispute about that. The only question is whether the prosecution have proved so that you are sure of it that Mr. Park was that killer. However, part of your task is to determine formally whether the prosecution have proved that Mrs. Park was murdered, and for that purpose I must direct you as to what the offence of murder is in law.
A person is guilty of murder if he or she unlawfully kills another person and at the time of the killing he or she intends either to kill that person or to cause him or her really serious injury. I use the word unlawfully to exclude cases where the killing may have been entirely accidental or where it is done in self-defence. Neither of those things arises here on the evidence, but I inform you of them so that you fully understand the legal definition that I have given to you.
As I say, you may readily come to the conclusion that someone murdered Carol Park, but it is for you to determine and therefore I have now directed you as to what the offence of murder is in law. The real question in the case is whether the prosecution has made you sure that it was this defendant who murdered her.