The defendants appealed against their convictions for murder. Evidence had been admitted as to the identification of a car from a memory of the registration mark by a witness.
Held: The evidence was properly admitted without a Turnbull direction: ‘ No recognised basis exists for suggesting that this type of evidence needs to be approached with special caution: it has not been established that the introduction of evidence of this kind in the past has caused particular injustice or that witnesses mistaken as to this kind of detail can also be convincing in a special way that calls for a Turnbull type direction. A witness who gives evidence of the details of a number plate is performing exactly the same role as a witness who, for instance, describes the number of punches delivered during a fight, whether traffic lights were green or red before a collision, or whether there were four or five masked men present during an armed robbery.’
Hooper LJ, Aikens, Fulford JJ
[2004] EWCA Crim 2139
Bailii
Citing:
Dsitinguished – Regina v Turnbull and Another etc CCA 9-Jun-1976
The defendants appealed against their convictions which had been based upon evidence of visual identification.
Held: Identification evidence can be unreliable, and courts must take steps to reduce injustice. The judge should warn the jury of . .
Cited by:
Cited – The Queen v Crawford PC 11-Nov-2015
From the Court of Appeal of the Cayman Islands – The crown appealed against the quashing of the respondent’s conviction for possession of an unlicensed firearm. A gun was found where he had been seen to discard a gun whilst being chased. The . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Criminal Evidence
Updated: 22 December 2021; Ref: scu.537583