The defendant appealed against orders allowing the use in evidence against him of information provided by him in ancillary relief proceedings, and without prejudice negotations with his wife’s solicitors.
Held: The information provided through the formal ancillary relief process had been obtained under compulsion, and the rules had been intended to require full disclosure and to have abrogated the privilege against self-incrimination within those proceedings. That so, the information should not be admissible in criminal proceedings: ‘the admission of evidence obtained from the accused under threat of imprisonment was not a reasonable and proportionate response to the social need to punish and deter tax evasion so as to justify such an infringement of the right of the accused not to incriminate himself.’ As to the without prejudice material, that was admissible since the crown had not been a party to those negotiations. Here the public interest in prosecuting crime was sufficiently strong to justify the setting aside the protection of the information disclosed in those negotiations. If particular circumstances would make its admission unfair, a trial judge might still exclude it under the 1984 Act.
Lord Justice Moore-Bick, Mr Justice Holman and Mrs Justice Rafferty
[2009] EWCA Crim 1640, Times 19-Aug-2009, [2009] STI 2197, [2010] 2 WLR 905, [2010] QB 343, [2010] 1 Cr App Rep 3, [2009] STC 2553, [2009] 3 FCR 341, [2009] Lloyd’s Rep FC 644, [2009] Fam Law 1136, [2010] 1 QB 343
Bailii
Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act 1996 29(1), Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 23 24, Family Proceedings Rules 1991 (SI 1991 No 1247), Criminal Justice Act 2003 118(1), European Convention on Human Rights 6, police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 78
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Saunders v The United Kingdom ECHR 17-Dec-1996
(Grand Chamber) The subsequent use against a defendant in a prosecution, of evidence which had been obtained under compulsion in company insolvency procedures was a convention breach of Art 6. Although not specifically mentioned in Article 6 of the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Criminal Practice, Family, Human Rights
Updated: 02 November 2021; Ref: scu.365623