The court quashed a conviction following a reference by the Criminal Cases Review Commission. Detective Constable Breakwell had been a witness at the trial of Fraser.
Held: ‘But what has emerged so far is sufficiently disturbing, particularly as to D.C. Breakwell’s conduct in other cases, as in the words of Beldam LJ in R v. Maxine Edwards [1996] 2 Cr. App. R 345 at 350 F-G, to raise a suspicion of perjury that infects the evidence in this case. ‘ and ‘In the circumstances it would, as the prosecution concede, be impossible for the court to be confident, that, had the jury known of these matters, they would have been bound to convict him. That is so notwithstanding that some of the matters and information about them post date the trial of the Appellant, since, if it had been available at the time, it would have been material to the jury’s consideration of the officer’s credibility, as the court held in Twitchell [2000] 1 Cr. App R 373.’
Judges:
Auld LJ
Citations:
Unreported, 2 October 2003
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Deans, Regina v CACD 30-Jul-2004
In 1989 the defendant was convicted of assorted serious drugs crimes. His case came before the court once more but on the basis that the evidence against him had been fabricated by police officers who had subsequently been discredited.
Held: . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Criminal Practice
Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.199733
