(Hong Kong) Despite the judge’s sympathetic directions as to the inadeqacy of the prosecution case, the defendant was convicted of two rapes.
Held: The test whether each member of an appellate court considers the verdicts ‘unsafe or unsatisfactory’ is part of the very alphabet of the criminal law. The statement that the verdicts were not perverse was shorthand for saying that there was evidence upon which a properly directed jury (as this jury was) could conscientiously have convicted. The court of appeal had applied the law correctly, and the appeal was dismissed.
Judges:
Lord Browne-Wilkinson Lord Nicholls of Birkenhead Lord Steyn Lord Hoffmann Lord Cooke of Thorndon
Citations:
[1996] UKPC 39
Links:
Citing:
Cited – Regina v Cooper (Sean) CACD 1969
The court considered its power to interfere with a jury’s verdict where a trial had been properly conducted: ‘every issue was before the jury and in which the jury was properly instructed, and, accordingly, a case in which this court will be very . .
Cited – Stafford v Director of Public Prosecutions HL 1974
The House rejected the submission of counsel that the Court of Appeal had asked the wrong question by taking as the test the effect of the fresh evidence on their mind and not the effect that the evidence would have had on the mind of the jury. It . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Commonwealth, Criminal Practice
Updated: 01 June 2022; Ref: scu.159199