Judge Kilner Brown confirmed the existence of the crime of attempting to pervert the course of justice: ‘Certain actions such as cheating or behaving obscenely may not be offences in a private connotation, but once the public is involved, either by agreement with one of its number or more diversely, the law regards such conduct as criminal. Perversion of the course of justice is per se an offence against the public weal. It is recognised as an unlawful act for the purpose of framing a charge of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and I am of the opinion, whichever way one approaches it, that common law does, and has for many years, recognised an act to pervert the course of justice, or an attempt so to do, as an unlawful act in itself. In my view this count charges an offence which is contrary to the common law and I reject the submission to quash this count.’ Nothing in Sections 4 or 5 of the Criminal Law Act 1967 had the effect of implying that the offence no longer existed.
Judges:
Judge Kilner Brown
Citations:
[1968] 3 All ER 179
Statutes:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Confirmed – Regina v Panayiotou and Another CACD 1973
Interfering with potential witnesses, so as to prevent or dissuade them from testifying are acts which amount to perverting the course of Justice. . .
Cited – Regina v Cotter and Others CACD 10-May-2002
The defendants appealed against convictions for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. They said that the fact that an investigation followed a false allegation was insufficient to found a complaint, and that the extent of the crime was so . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Crime
Updated: 02 May 2022; Ref: scu.383657
