Using a house to kill

Legal historians and those with an interest in confiscation law are familiar with the deodand - The principle of forfeiting the instrument of a murder to the State. The modern successor to the deodand in Victoria is the definition of 'tainted property' in section 3(1) of the Confiscation Act 1997, which includes property that:

(a)  was used, or was intended by the accused to be used in, or in connection with, the commission of the offence

In one of the flurry of decisions from the Court of Appeal last week, the court considered when house in which a murder was committed would be caught under this definition.