The High Court has quashed a murder conviction and ordered a new trial for a South Australian man who killed over an unwanted sexual advance.
Michael Joseph Lindsay, 30, was jailed for at least 23 years over the death of Andrew Roger Negre in 2011.
Mr Negre, 37, was bashed and stabbed to death and his body dumped in a wheelie bin after he offered to pay Lindsay for sex during a night of drinking.
But on Wednesday the High Court ruled that the question of provocation, which in South Australia can be used as a partial defence and reduce murder to manslaughter, was not properly considered.
It found that the jury had not been adequately instructed on the issue and this had resulted in a miscarriage of justice, ruling that the gravity of the provocation had to be assessed from Lindsay's point of view.
It was reasonable for the jury to consider that an offer of money for sex made by a caucasian man to an Aboriginal man in his home and in the presence of his wife and family would have a "pungency" that such an advance would not have in other circumstances, the High Court ruled.
At his trial Lindsay's lawyer had argued that Mr Negre's unwanted sexual advances had caused Lindsay to lose control.
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