The defendant was convicted in 1978 of attempted murder and of attempted buggery. He was 15 years old, and had been subjected to prolonged interrogation.
Held: Modern understanding suggested the reality of the possibility of coerced compliant confessions. This issue would be outside the realm of the ordinary experience to be expected of jurors, and expert evidence should have been admitted. Extrinsic evidence could not be used to show that the content of the statement was likely to be true. The issue was the evidential weight of the statement itself. At the time senior officers had sworn on oath that the defendant had written his own statement, but this was now conceded to be false. This therefore also went to the reliability of the associated oral confessions. The appeal was allowed.
Judges:
Keen LJ, Newman J, Walker J
Citations:
Times 10-Jun-2005, [2005] EWCA Crim 1349
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Criminal Practice
Updated: 30 June 2022; Ref: scu.226124