The defendant appealed against convictions for rape and sexual assault, criticising the judge’s comments to the jury about the credibility of a rape complainant delaying making a complaint. The prosecution said that the judges comments were justified.
Held: The judge is entitled to make comments as to the way evidence is to be approached particularly in areas where there is a danger of a jury coming to an unjustified conclusion without an appropriate warning, but any such comment must be uncontroversial. If not the court must hear evidence. In this case the judge had overstepped the mark, but on the facts the convictions were not unsafe.
Pill LJ, Jack, Openshaw JJ
[2008] EWCA Crim 2394, Times 26-Nov-2008
Bailii
England and Wales
Criminal Practice
Updated: 10 November 2021; Ref: scu.277148