‘These two otherwise unrelated cases have been listed together to provide the court an opportunity to consider various issues relating to the retention, inspection, copying, disclosure and deletion of the electronic records held by prosecution witnesses. These issues frequently arise in the context of sexual offences as regards material stored on complainants’ mobile telephones, but they occur in a wide range of other circumstances. Therefore, although this judgment focusses on the position of complainants who allege sexual impropriety, the principles will be equally relevant – depending always on the facts – to other prosecution witnesses. For these reasons we have used the words ‘complainant’ and ‘witness’ interchangeably.’
Citations:
[2020] EWCA Crim 790
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Criminal Evidence
Updated: 07 December 2022; Ref: scu.651927