McKenna v Director of Public Prosecutions: Admn 8 Apr 2005

The defendant appealed a conviction for driving whilst disqualified. He said that an officer’s identification of him should have been excluded from evidence because no identification parade had been held.
Held: A parade should have been held: ‘knowledge and familiarity with a person 14 years beforehand and refreshed only by limited occasions and maybe only once since about 1990, with no conversations having taken place, failed to establish a basis of contact which entitled the fact-finder to reach the conclusion that the suspect was well-known to the witness. ‘ However though there had been a breach of the code of practice, the evidence could still be admitted. The appeal failed.

Citations:

[2005] EWHC 677 (Admin)

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1978 78(1)

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

AppliedRegina v Forbes (Anthony Leroy) (Attorney General’s Reference No 3 of 1999) HL 19-Dec-2000
The provisions of the Code of Practice regarding identification parades are mandatory and additional unwritten conditions are not to be inserted. Where there was an identification and the suspect challenged that identification, and consented to the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Road Traffic, Criminal Evidence

Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.224539