Appeal against convictions for serious sexual assaults on female children.
The court approved the following from the 2010 Bench Handbook about directing the jury: ‘The experience of judges who try sexual offences is that an image of stereotypical behaviour and demeanour by a victim or the perpetrator of a non-consensual offence such as rape held by some members of the public can be misleading and capable of leading to injustice. That experience has been gained from judges, expert in the field, presiding over many such trials during which guilt has been established but in which the behaviour and demeanour of complainants and defendants, both during the incident giving rise to the charge and in evidence, has been widely variable. Judges have, as a result of their experience, in recent years adopted the course of cautioning juries against applying stereotypical images of how an alleged victim or an alleged perpetrator of a sexual offence ought to have been behaved at the time, or ought to appear while giving evidence, and to judge the evidence on its intrinsic merits. This is not to invite juries to suspend their own judgment but to approach the evidence without prejudice.’
Judges:
Leveson, Tomlinson LJJ, Davis J
Citations:
[2010] EWCA Crim 1578
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Beale, Regina v CACD 28-Mar-2019
Appeal from sentence on conviction of three counts of perjury and four counts of perverting the course of justice on the basis she had made repeated and false allegations of rape. She was sentenced to a term of ten years, consisting of a total of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Crime
Updated: 20 September 2022; Ref: scu.420694