The appellant was convicted of supplying cannabis to a named individual at a house in Paisley. The appellant had acted with his co-accused Miss C who had made the actual supply. There was sufficient evidence against Miss C to prove that she had made the supply from two sources: a statement that she had made to the police, admitting the supply, and the eye-witness testimony of her sister. The sister’s evidence was available against the appellant, but the Appeal Court quashed the appellant’s conviction on the ground that the co-accused’s statement was not evidence against the appellant and therefore the sister’s evidence was not corroborated, as it requires to be in Scots law.
Held: ‘It is plain that without the evidence of Deborah Campbell’s voluntary statement, there was no corroborated evidence of supply to Maureen Campbell. In a question with Deborah Campbell the jury were entitled to treat her voluntary statement as corroboration. However, the jury were not entitled to rely on the evidence of the voluntary statement of Deborah Campbell when considering the case against the other co-accused including the appellant. What Deborah Campbell said in her voluntary statement to the police was not evidence against the appellant.’ The co-accused’s statement made no mention of the appellant, but was none the less not admissible against him to prove the supply with which he was charged.
Lord Justice Clerk (Ross)
1986 SC 169
Cited by:
Cited – Regina v Hayter HL 3-Feb-2005
The House considered the principle that the confession of a defendant is inadmissible in a joint criminal case against a co-defendant. In a trial for murder, one party was accused of requesting a middleman to arrange for the murder by a third party. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 15 October 2021; Ref: scu.222544