The appellant challenged the admissibility of witness statements made by the complainant where the complainant had died before the trial.
Held: The ‘counterbalancing measures’ in the 2003 Act and at the common law had not been properly applied, and in relation to count 1, the appellant did not have a fair trial and his rights under Article 6(1) were infringed.
In order to assess the question of whether a defendant has received a fair trial it was necessary to resolve (1) whether there was proper justification for admitting the untested hearsay evidence of the complainant under domestic law (in that case under section 116(1) and (2)(a) Criminal Justice Act 2003); (2) how important the statements were in relation to the Crown’s case; (3) whether the statements were demonstrably reliable; and (4) whether counter-balancing safeguards had been properly applied. The more central the untested hearsay evidence, the greater the need for scrutiny of the reliability of the evidence and the proper application of counter-balancing safeguards.
Judges:
Aikens, LJ, Field J and HHJ Cooke QC
Citations:
[2012] EWCA Crim 837, [2012] 2 Cr App R 3
Links:
Statutes:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Al-Khawaja v The United Kingdom; Tahery v The United Kingdom ECHR 15-Dec-2011
(Grand Chamber) The claimants complained of the use against them of hearsay evidence in their trials.
Held: ‘the underlying principle is that the defendant in a criminal trial should have an effective opportunity to challenge the evidence . .
Cited – Horncastle and Others, Regina v SC 9-Dec-2009
Each defendant said they had not received a fair trial in that the court had admitted written evidence of a witness he had not been allowed to challenge. The witnesses had been victims, two of whom had died before trial. It was suggested that the . .
Cited by:
Cited – Adeojo and Another v Regina CACD 6-Feb-2013
The defendants appealed against their convictions for murder saying that the court should not have relied upon hearsay evidence. A witness had refused to give evidence, but his earlier evidnece was used.
Held: The appeals failed. The judge had . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Criminal Evidence, Human Rights
Updated: 07 October 2022; Ref: scu.453066
