The appellant had undergone a male to female sex change, but was refused employment by the respondent before the Human Rights Act came into effect. Held: Although the Human Rights Act could not apply, the act was in breach of the Equal Treatment Directive and discrimination. The 1999 regulations were incompatible with the provisions of … Continue reading A v Chief Constable of the West Yorkshire Police and Another: CA 5 Nov 2002
W faced a charge of robbery. At the police station on arrest he was first refused access to a solicitor. The police conceded that the refusal was a breach of s58, and that the officer had failed to record the interview as required, and to give an opportunity to read and sign the interview record … Continue reading Regina v Walsh (Gerald Frederick): CACD 1990
The claimant was a male to female trans-sexual who had been refused employment as a police officer by the respondent, who had said that the staturory requirement for males to search males and for females to search females would be impossible to comply with. She had sought to be employed on the basis that her … Continue reading A v West Yorkshire Police: HL 6 May 2004
Claim to privilege must be precisely focused The Daily Telegraph carried an article headed ‘Incompetence at ministry cost pounds 52 million’ recording that a number of senior civil servants had been reprimanded after investigation by the Public Accounts Committee. The plaintiff had been in charge at the material time. It also stated that the plaintiff … Continue reading Blackshaw v Lord: CA 1984
Challenge to issue of search warrants. Citations: [2014] EWHC 1541 (Admin) Links: Bailii Statutes: Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 9 Jurisdiction: England and Wales Police Updated: 05 November 2022; Ref: scu.526395
The claimants sought review of a decision of the Serious Organised Crime Agency to seize documents which have been the subject of the unlawful execution of a search warrant, purporting to act for this record seizure under section 19 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984. SOCA, with identical powers to those of the … Continue reading Cook and Another v Serious Organised Crime Agency: Admn 27 Jul 2010
Claimants sought damages for personal injuries incurred when, in Pristina, Kosovo and during a riot, British soldiers on a UN peacekeeping expedition fired on a car. Held: The incidents occurred in the course of peace-keeping duties. It was not argued that they occurred in combat, and it was established that in cases of riot, soldiers … Continue reading Bici and Bici v Ministry of Defence: QBD 7 Apr 2004
The question of status as mentally handicapped is not to be rigidly determined from one case to next. Citations: Times 27-Jul-1993 Statutes: Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 77-3 Jurisdiction: England and Wales Crime Updated: 26 October 2022; Ref: scu.87054
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 … Continue reading Regina v Nicholson (Andrew Robert): CACD 2 Sep 1999
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. Citations: Times 02-Sep-1999 Statutes: Police And Criminal Evidence Act 1984 Codes of … Continue reading Regina v Popat (No 2): CACD 2 Sep 1999
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. Citations: Times 13-Oct-1999 Statutes: Police … Continue reading Regina v Ryan: CACD 13 Oct 1999
Appeals from conviction of conspiracy to defraud. Citations: [1997] EWCA Crim 960 Links: Bailii Statutes: Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 74(2) Jurisdiction: England and Wales Citing: Distinguished – Regina v Manzur; Regina v Mahmood CACD 28-Nov-1996 The prosecution was seeking to rely upon the plea of guilty of a person who had not given … Continue reading Gardner and Another, Regina v: CACD 22 Apr 1997
The two defendants appealed from convictions of conspiracy to defraud, saying that the court should not have admitted in evidence the admissions of co-defendants who had pleaded guilty. Held: The appeal failed. Judges: Sir Brian Leveson, Jeremy Baker, Goose JJ Citations: [2018] EWCA Crim 2486, [2018] WLR(D) 689, [2018] 4 WLR 154 Links: Bailii, WLRD … Continue reading Shirt and Another v Regina: CACD 8 Nov 2018
Evidence from 3rd Party Torture Inadmissible The applicants had been detained following the issue of certificates issued by the respondent that they posed a terrorist threat. They challenged the decisions of the Special Immigration Appeals Commission saying that evidence underlying the decisions had probably been obtained by torture committed by foreign powers, and should not … Continue reading A and others v Secretary of State for the Home Department (No 2): HL 8 Dec 2005
Twins were conjoined (Siamese). Medically, both could not survive, and one was dependent upon the vital organs of the other. Doctors applied for permission to separate the twins which would be followed by the inevitable death of one of them. The parents, devout Roman Catholics, resisted. Held: The parents’ views were subject to the overriding … Continue reading In Re A (Minors) (Conjoined Twins: Medical Treatment); aka In re A (Children) (Conjoined Twins: Surgical Separation): CA 22 Sep 2000
The DPP appealed by case stated against a dismissal of a charge against the respondent following a driving incident. He complained of the admission of bad character evidence saying that it would be unfair under section 78 of the 1984 Act. The magistrates had accepted that submission. Held: The Crown had sought to adduce the … Continue reading Director of Public Prosecutions v Agyemang: Admn 24 Jun 2009
The court considered the lawfulness of telephone tapping. The issue arose following a trial in which the prosecution had admitted the interception of the plaintiff’s telephone conversations under a warrant issued by the Secretary of State. The plaintiff claimed that the interception had been and was unlawful. Held: Although he dismissed the plaintiff’s claim, the … Continue reading Malone v Commissioner of the Police for the Metropolis (No 2): ChD 28 Feb 1979
The claimant said that the retention by the police of items belonging to her infringed her human rights. Judges: Plender J Citations: [2008] EWHC 654 (QB) Links: Bailii Statutes: Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 22(1), European Convention on Human Rights 8, Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 340(3) Police, Human Rights Updated: 17 July 2022; … Continue reading Wiltshire Constabulary v McDonagh: QBD 8 Apr 2008
Prosecutor’s appeal against dismissal of charge of using threatening or abusive words or behaviour. Officers stopping youths in street and searching for drugs. The defendant had challenged the admission of statements said to have been made at the scene by the defendants under Code C. After exclusion of the admissions, the prosecutor had offered no … Continue reading Director of Public Prosecutions v Lawrence: Admn 16 Jul 2007
The claimants had been detained under the 1971 Act, after completing sentences of imprisonment pending their return to their home countries under deportations recommended by the judges at trial, or chosen by the respondent. They challenged as unlawful the respondent’s, at first unpublished, policy introduced in 2006, that by default, those awaiting deportation should be … Continue reading Lumba (WL) v Secretary of State for The Home Department: SC 23 Mar 2011
The police went to detain the appellant under the 1983 Act. To do so they entered the property against her wishes. She resisted detention, and now appealed her conviction for assaulting the Police officers in the execution of their duty, saying that the entry was unlawful, and that detention under the 1983 Act was not … Continue reading D’Souza v Director of Public Prosecutions: HL 15 Oct 1992
The defendants appealed convictions for being involved in the illegal importation of cocaine, saying that questioning at the airport before a caution was administered was unlawful. By the time they were asked about the cases, the customs officers already knew that the cases contained drugs. The recorder had said that the questions were standard ones … Continue reading Regina v Dianne Senior and Samantha Senior: CA 4 Mar 2004
The defendant was convicted of fraud charges. He sought to have excluded statements made in interview on the basis that they had been obtained by oppressive behaviour by the police. His wife was very seriously ill in hospital and he had made the statement so that he could get out to see her. The police … Continue reading Regina v Mushtaq: HL 21 Apr 2005
Appeal from conviction under section 4 – whether correct to admit evidence of conviction of co-accused. Citations: [2009] EWCA Crim 1944 Links: Bailii Statutes: Explosive Substances Act 1883 4, Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 78 Jurisdiction: England and Wales Crime Updated: 17 June 2022; Ref: scu.377754
The appellant and co-accused were charged with murder. They said they had gone to meet the deceased to collect a debt, but had been attacked with a knife by the deceased. Two of the three had knives and knew of the other knife. Held: All were taking part in a joint and unlawful enterprise. Each … Continue reading Chan Wing-Siu v The Queen: PC 21 Jun 1984
When a telephone engineer used his position to make unauthorised telephone intercepts, and produced apparent evidence of criminal activity, he was, under the Act, a person engaged in providing a public communications system, and the recordings were not admissible. The phrase ‘engaged in’ could refer either to his status, or that the act was part … Continue reading Regina v Sargent: HL 25 Oct 2001
The case concerned an appeal following a demonstration. The Chief constable had made an order under section 60, anticipating serious violence. The respondent wore a mask, and the officer reached out to remove it. She hit out and broke his glasses. He did nothing to identify himself or the purpose of his action. Magistrates decided … Continue reading Director of Public Prosecutions v Avery: QBD 11 Oct 2001
The applicant for habeas corpus resisted extradition to India on the ground, among others, that the prosecution relied on a statement obtained by torture and since retracted. Held: the court accepted the magistrate’s judgment that fairness did not call for exclusion of the statement, but was clear that the common law and domestic statute law … Continue reading Nadeem Akhtar Saifi v Governor of Brixton Prison and Union of India: Admn 21 Dec 2000
The Police had confiscated money suspected to be the proceeds of drug trafficking, but no offence was proved. The magistrates had refused to return the money under the 1897 Act. The claimants now sought to reciver it under civil proceedings. Held: The judge was wrong to have found public policy grounds for refusing to order … Continue reading Webb v Chief Constable of Merseyside Police: CA 26 Nov 1999
Cases brought by the RSPCA under the 2006 Act were dismissed after evidence was not admitted. They now appealed. Search warrants had been obtained for one purpose but, the defendants had argued, that purpose having been satisfied, the search which continued had been unlawful, and that evidence drawn from that activity should not be admitted. … Continue reading RSPCA, Regina (on The Application of) v Colchester Magistrates’ Court: Admn 11 Mar 2015
K, aged 16, had left home to join what was said to be a religious sect. His whereabouts were unknown. He had been made a ward of court and the Official Solicitor was appointed to represent his interests. He had sent messages to say that he was well and did not wish to return. The … Continue reading Kelly (A Minor) v British Broadcasting Corporation: FD 25 Jul 2000
(Supreme Court of Canada) The court considered a claim to exercise the privilege against self-incrimination. Held: Whereas a compelled statement is evidence that would not have existed independently of the exercise of the powers of compulsion, evidence which exists independently of the compelled statements could have been found by other means and its quality does … Continue reading Thompson Newspapers Ltd v Director of Investigation and Research: 1990
The search of a victim’s premises which continued after evidence had come to light suggesting the victim might be a suspect was in breach of the codes of practice where it continued without the consent of the occupier. Evidence which was derived from that continued search was unlawful. Nevertheless, it was fair to admit the … Continue reading Regina v Sanghera: CA 26 Oct 2000
The defendant was accused of importing heroin. He challenged use of his recorded interviews saying he was suffering hypoglycaemia from his diabetes at the time. The judge excluded later interviews for this reason, but the defendant challenged the use of the first few tapes since the doctor said he might be suffering in this way. … Continue reading Regina v Sat-Bhambra: CACD 1989
The court rejected a submission that, in a civil claim, sections 76 to 78 PACE precluded reliance altogether upon any evidence by an interview undertaken without a prior caution. Those exclusionary provisions were confined, the Court made clear, to criminal proceedings. However: ‘1. Were the court to be satisfied that answers had been obtained by … Continue reading Ghulam Yasim v Secretary of State for the Home Department: CA 1996
Complaint was made about the slipshod completion of applications for search warrants. The nature of the review of compliance with Section 24(4) was to be that appropriate to Section 24(6). Underhill J held: ’26. The terms of s-s. (5) are new and there is no authority on their effect. The previous s. 24 (6) provided … Continue reading C, Regina (on the Application of) v ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court: Admn 26 Sep 2006
In each case, the prosecution had produced a computer record to the court as evidence. The record was a computer print out. They challenged their convictions. Held: To admit such evidence, the court had to see compliance with both sections. There should if necessary, be a trial within a trial first, to decide whether the … Continue reading Regina v Minors, Regina v Harper: CACD 14 Dec 1988
Computer based evidence, which says what would have been said by the person making the record, remains hearsay, and is inadmissible without statutory provision otherwise. There is no exception for summary civil proceedings for the collection of community charge arrears. Legislation in the Magistrates court had made computer based evidence admissible but only for criminal … Continue reading Regina v Coventry Justices Ex Parte Bullard and Another: QBD 15 Apr 1992
A private prosecution of a youth for an offence after he had accepted a caution was not an abuse of process, since the cautioner had warned him of the possibility. Poole J said: ‘The right of private prosecutions is subject to a number of procedural limitations, eg justices’ refusal to enter a summons, the Attorney- … Continue reading Hayter v L and Another: QBD 3 Feb 1998
An horrific rape had taken place. The defendant was arrested on a separate matter, tried and acquitted. He was tried under a false ID. His DNA sample should have been destroyed but wasn’t. Had his identity been known, his DNA could have been kept because of other convictions. He was arrested for the rape after … Continue reading Attorney General’s Reference No. 3 of 1999: HL 14 Dec 2000
The claimant appellant alleged that properties she owned were transferred to the first defendant under undue influence or other unconscionable conduct by the second and third defendants. The claim was dismissed. Three years later she claimed to set that judgment aside having been obtained by fraud. To support the allegation she brought evidence not available … Continue reading Takhar v Gracefield Developments Ltd and Others: SC 20 Mar 2019
The court was asked whether it was lawful for the Secretary of State to make subordinate legislation imposing a cap on the amount of welfare benefits which can be received by claimants in non-working households, equivalent to the net median earnings of working households. The challenge was under the 1998 Act on the basis that … Continue reading SG and Others, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions: SC 18 Mar 2015
In each case the local authority sought to recover possession of its own land. In the Lambeth case, they asserted this right as against an overstaying former tenant, and in the Leeds case as against gypsies. In each case the occupiers said that the recovery of possession interfered with their right respect for their family … Continue reading Kay and Another v London Borough of Lambeth and others; Leeds City Council v Price and others and others: HL 8 Mar 2006
The court was asked whether proceedings in a military court against soldiers for disciplinary offences involved criminal charges within the meaning of Article 6(1): ‘In this connection, it is first necessary to know whether the provision(s) defining the offence charged belong, according to the legal system of the respondent State, to criminal law, disciplinary law … Continue reading Engel And Others v The Netherlands (1): ECHR 8 Jun 1976
The defendant appealed against an unsuccessful application to exclude evidence where it was claimed there had been incitement by an agent provocateur. Held: The appeal failed. There is no defence of entrapment in English law. All evidence which is relevant is prima facie admissible in a criminal trial, although the trial judge has a discretion … Continue reading Regina v Sang: HL 25 Jul 1979
HMRC had seized material in e course of executing a search warrant. The warrant was later removed, but the Crown Court authorised the continued retention of the materials, The question now was whether the material had been seized in the course a criminal cause or matter so as to govern the mode of appeal. Held: … Continue reading Panesar and Others v HM Revenue and Customs: CA 15 Dec 2014
The claimant, who had a criminal record from 1984, and 1993, had refused to accede to a requirement that he attend at a police station to provide a non-intimate sample so that a DNA record could be created for him to be placed on the national database. He said that though the request was made … Continue reading R, Regina (on The Application of) v A Chief Constable: Admn 24 Sep 2013
The claimant sought damages, alleging: ‘oppressive questioning, unlawful arrest, unlawful detention, unlawful search of her home, theft and / or failure to secure her home premises, and the wrongful declaration by the UKBA that she was an illegal migrant subject to removal under Immigration Act 1971 s.10 provisions’ and theft. The court now considered the … Continue reading Poonam v Secretary of State for The Home Department: QBD 18 Jul 2013
(Trinidad and Tobago) The claimant had been held after arrest on suspicion of theft. He was held for several months before the case was dismissed, the posecution having made no apparent attempt to further the prosecution. He appealed against refusal of damages for malicious prosecution, wrongful arrest and false imprisonment. Held: The appeal failed. The … Continue reading Williamson v The Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago: PC 3 Sep 2014
Statement without lawyer access was inadmissible The accused complained that he had been convicted for assault and breach of the peace on the basis of a statement made by him during an interview with the police where, under the 1995 Act, he had been denied access to a lawyer. Held: The section must be read … Continue reading Cadder v Her Majesty’s Advocate: SC 26 Oct 2010
The Court was asked as to the circumstances in which DNA profiles obtained by the police in exercise of their criminal law enforcement functions can, without the consent of the data subject, be put to uses which are remote from the field of criminal law enforcement. The claimant was a prisoner serving a life term … Continue reading X and Another v Z (Children) and Another: CA 5 Feb 2015
The respondent was convicted of sexual offences against two groups of boys. The trial judge directed the jury that they would be entitled to take into account the uncorroborated evidence of the second group as supporting evidence given by the first group. Held: The House considered what was the general character of relevant evidence. Lord … Continue reading Regina v Kilbourne: HL 1973
The claimant challenged the legality of a search warrant and the method of its execution on his home. He complained that the police had ensured publicity for the execution of the warrant. Held: The obtaining of a search warrant is never to be treated as a formality. It authorises the invasion of a person’s home. … Continue reading Redknapp and Another v Commissioner of the City of London Police and Another: Admn 23 May 2008
When the court looked at the issue of foreseeability of murder in an allegation of joint enterprise, there was no requirement to show intent by the secondary party. The forseeability of the risk of the principal committing the offence from the point of view of the secondary party is sufficient. The question certified was ‘Is … Continue reading Regina v Powell (Anthony) and Another; Regina v English: HL 30 Oct 1997
The defendant appealed against his conviction for the murder of his partner. He said that the court should have accepted his plea under section 54 of the 2009 Act, having wrongly admitted as evidence his previous covictions in Bulgaria at a time when, he said, people of his racial descent were regularly wrongly convicted. Pitchford … Continue reading Mehmedov v Regina: CACD 18 Jul 2014
The defendant appealed against his conviction for murder. He complained as to the admission of some additional evidence from one of the co-defendants. Held: The appeal failed. Although some of the judge’s analysis was incorrect: ‘We recognise that a court will not readily admit an out of court statement by one defendant as evidence against … Continue reading Sliogeris v Regina: CACD 30 Jan 2015
The claimants alleged that a connection between a member of the Restrictive Practices Court, who was to hear a complaint and another company, disclosed bias against them. She had not recused herself. Held: When asking whether material circumstances in a case might give rise to a reasonable apprehension of bias, the test was whether objectively … Continue reading In Re Medicaments and Related Classes of Goods (No 2); Director General of Fair Trading v Proprietary Association of Great Britain and Proprietary Articles Trade Association: CA 21 Dec 2000
The defendants appealed against their convictions and sentence of three years for money laundering. Dehumidifiers and similar had been sold at grossly inflated prices to the elderly. It was ‘a most despicable fraud committed on the vulnerable people . .
In the course of extradition proceedings, an order was obtained under the 1879 Act. The defendant sought to appeal against the order, and applied to the Court of Appeal.
Held: The procedure under the 1879 Act was in the course of criminal . .
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The claimant pursued Employment Tribunal proceedings against the Immigration Service when his security clearance was withdrawn. The Tribunal allowed the respondent to use a closed material procedure under which it was provided with evidence unseen . .
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