Criminal Evidence - 1999

These cases are extracted from a very large database. The entries on that database are now being published individually to the main swarb.co.uk website in a much improved form. As cases are published here, the entry here will be replaced by a link to the same case in that improved form on swarb.co.uk. In addition the swarb.co.uk site includes very substantial numbers of cases after 2000. Please take the time to look.  

This page lists 24 cases, and was prepared on 06 June 2013. These case are being transferred one by one to the main swarb.co.uk site which presents them better, with links to full text where we have it, and much improved cross referencing.

Regina -v- Taylor [1999] Crim LR 77
1999 CACD Buxton LJ	Criminal Evidence	Casemap 1 Cites 1 Citers
	The appellant, who had previous convictions, did not give evidence, and the trial judge gave a direction in accordance with section 35. Held: The Court rejected a submission by the appellant's counsel that the judge should have not have told the jury that they could draw inferences from the defendant's failure to give evidence.
	Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 35

Regina -v- Hookway [1999] EWCA Crim 212
1 Feb 1999 CACD	Criminal Evidence	1 Citers
	The defendant appealed against his conviction based on expert facial mapping evidence. Held. Such evidence might stand on its own, and had been properly left before the jury.
	Link[s] omitted

Regina -v- Fitzpatrick (Gerald)
19 Feb 1999 CACD	Criminal Evidence	Casemap 1 Cites
	The direction to the jury about the value of expert evidence need not be followed slavishly. A jury should know that they were not necessarily bound by an expert's opinion, but there is no inflexible requirement as to the wording to be used.

Regina -v- Byron
10 Mar 1999 CACD	Criminal Evidence
	A description of a suspect given by a witness is not itself an identification. Where an identification parade has not been held and therefore there is no admissible identification of the defendant, such evidence of description remains admissible.

Regina -v- Bingham (On Appeal From The Court Of Appeal Northern Ireland) Regina -v- Cooke (On Appeal From The Court Of Appeal Northern Ireland) [1999] UKHL 13; [1999] 1 WLR 598
24 Mar 1999 HL	Criminal Evidence, Northern Ireland
	Where a defendant is called into the witness box, and gives no evidence in chief, but answers questions put to him by the prosecution has not failed to give evidence and so no adverse inference was to be drawn against him.
	Criminal Evidence (Northern Ireland) Order 1988 (SI 1988 / 1987 (NI 20)
	Link[s] omitted

Regina -v- Jones (Derek); Regina -v- Nelson (Gary) [1999] EWCA Crim 867
26 Mar 1999 CACD	Criminal Evidence, Police	1 Cites 1 Citers
	Police officers have no power to use reasonable force, to compel a suspect to undergo an identification by confrontation. Powers generally phrased in the Act did not override an individual suspect's rights. Beldam LJ said that the requirement that reasonable force may be used to secure conditions of detention does not authorise the use of force to bring about a confrontation.
	Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 117; Code D
	[ Bailii ]

Regina -v- Buckley; CACD 30-Apr-1999

Regina -v- Forbes
5 May 1999 CA	Criminal Evidence
	A defendant, having attacked the character of a prosecution witness, could not escape having his own put in issue, by giving evidence, but then refusing to return to the witness box for cross-examination. The ID parades code is mandatory in effect.

Regina -v- James NJ [1999] EWCA Crim 1686
17 Jun 1999 CACD	Criminal Evidence	Casemap 1 Citers
	The court admitted in evidence, by applying the res gestae rule, a statement of the defendant's co-accused.

Rockall, Regina (on The Application of) -v- The Attorney General; Admn 02-Jul-1999

Regina -v- Gogana
12 Jul 1999 CACD	Criminal Evidence
	Where an appeal was based upon a witness who having once given evidence wished to given evidence to a different effect, it was now clear that full affidavit evidence as to the circumstances in which the new evidence had been obtained and from all involved.

Regina -v- Derodara
16 Jul 1999 CACD	Criminal Evidence
	The maker of a statement need not be the person who creates a statement. It may be the person on whose behalf the statements are asserted as true is the maker. Here a police report based on the defendant's false statements as to the date of a burglary were admitted as evidence in a case alleging a false declaration as part of an obtaining of a pecuniary advantage by deception.
	Theft Act 1968 16(1) 23 24

Regina -v- K (Corroboration)
16 Jul 1999 CACD Gage J	Criminal Evidence
	The mother had drawn an allegation from her daughter by questioning. Held: Where a child's complaint in a sex abuse case may have been elicited by the mother, the court should make clear to the jury the danger of treating the mother's evidence as corroborative of the child's, and also as to the danger arising from the susceptibility to suggestion in such a child. The convictions in this case were unsafe.

Regina -v- M (T); CACD 20-Jul-1999

Director of Public Prosecutions -v- Spurrier [1999] EWHC Admin 721
21 Jul 1999 QBD	Criminal Evidence, Road Traffic	Casemap 1 Cites
	It was not absolutely necessary for a defendant who asserted that a Lion Intoximeter was faulty because of a disparity between the reading and what had been drunk, to bring expert evidence to rebut the statutory presumption that the Intoximeter was in working order. A court could reach such a conclusion without such evidence, but should be careful to examine all relevant aspects of the evidence. The prosecutor appealed against dismissal of a charge under section 5. The magistrates heard that the reading was exceptionally high, but that the police had not noticed any effect on her demeanour and it had been twelve hours since she had consumed any alcohol. Held. The case bumped up against the limits for magistrates to act without expert evidence, but the appeal failed. Their decision was not perverse. It was not absolutely necessary for a defendant who asserted that a Lion Intoximeter was faulty because of a disparity between the reading and what had been drunk, to bring expert evidence to rebut the statutory presumption that the Intoximeter was in working order. A court could reach such a conclusion without such evidence, but should be careful to examine all relevant aspects of the evidence.
	Road Traffic Act 1988 5(1)
	Link[s] omitted

Regina -v- Popat (No 2)
2 Sep 1999 CACD	Criminal Evidence	1 Cites 1 Citers
	The case of R v Popat had not been overruled by R v Forbes, which had been decided unfortunately. The obligation to hold an identity parade was not absolute. There are other factors which can be relied upon to make the obligation indeterminate.
	Police And Criminal Evidence Act 1984 Codes of Practice 1996 D:2.3

Regina -v- Nicholson (Andrew Robert)
2 Sep 1999 CACD	Criminal Evidence
	Where in an assault case, the complainant did not assert that she would be able to identify the defendant, a defendant seeking an identity parade merely for the purpose of establishing what was admitted, could not oblige a parade to be called. The prosecution had proceeded on the basis of other evidence, and placed no reliance upon a general description given by the complainant.
	Police And Criminal Evidence Act 1984 Codes of Practice 1996 D:2.3

Regina -v- M and Others; CACD 02-Sep-1999

Regina -v- Nicholson (Andrew Robert)
8 Sep 1999 CACD	Criminal Evidence
	Where in an assault case, the complainant did not assert that she would be able to identify the defendant, a defendant seeking an identity parade merely for the purpose of establishing what was admitted, could not oblige a parade to be called. The prosecution had proceeded on the basis of other evidence, and placed no reliance upon a general description given by the complainant.
	Police And Criminal Evidence Act 1984 Codes of Practice 1996 D:2.3

Regina -v- Roberts
14 Sep 1999 CACD	Criminal Evidence
	Where it became clear during a trial that a witness' identification of the defendant was based rather on voice than visual memory, counsel for prosecution and defence should have been given opportunity to consider this and make representation, with the trial being stopped if necessary. Research suggests that identification from voice is less reliable even than visual identification.

Regina -v- Ryan
13 Oct 1999 CACD	Criminal Evidence
	There has been some confusion about the need for identity parades to be held where requested by the defendant. Where the witness had properly identified the defendant such a parade need not be held. The decision in R v Popat was to be preferred to that in R v Forbes.
	Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 Codes of Practice

Nottingham City Council -v- Amin; QBD 02-Dec-1999

Regina -v- Doldur
7 Dec 1999 CACD	Criminal Evidence	Casemap 1 Cites
	A jury cannot convict solely on the basis of an inference, drawn under section 34, from the combination of an accused's failure to give at interview, an explanation relied upon later at court. Additional evidence could be found not only from the prosecution case, but also from the defence. In a section 35 case however, the jury must only draw upon the prosecution case for such a basis.
	Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 34 35

Regina -v- Z (Prior Acquittal); CACD 14-Dec-1999