The two defendants appealed convictions for assault. Police officers made statements, but then at the request of the defence produced video evidence. The police officer who prepared the commentary on the video had amended his statement in the light of the video. The defendants complained that the officer should not have been allowed event to see the video before the trial.
Held: The appeals failed. Witnesses may be allowed to refresh their memory from a video of a scene, but the procedures to be followed must be clear and fair. The purpose of the procedure is to assist the witness to remember what happened and to make sure his statement was correct from that video evidence. Lord Bingham of Cornhill: ‘it seems to us plain that the duty of any witness when giving a statement is to describe the relevant events to the best of his or her honest recollection and certainly not to invent or fabricate evidence to assist the prosecution or the defence. If, after the giving of such a statement, a relevant video comes to light, it is not in our judgment wrong in principle that the witness should be permitted to see that video. On seeing it the witness may find that in some respects his or her recollection had been at fault, and the witness may wish to correct or modify earlier evidence. It is however in our view a matter of the utmost importance that nothing should be done which amounts to rehearsing the evidence of a witness, or coaching the witness so as to encourage the witness to alter the evidence originally given. The acid test is whether the procedure adopted in any particular case is such as to taint the resulting evidence. It is, we would stress, necessary to preserve equality of arms so that facilities are not made available to the prosecution which are not made available to the defence. On the prosecution side we see no reason to distinguish between police and non-police witnesses. They should be treated the same. ‘
Judges:
Lord Bingham of Cornhill LCJ, Brian Smedley J, Thomas J
Citations:
Times 02-May-1998, [1998] EWCA Crim 1193
Links:
Statutes:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Criminal Evidence
Updated: 11 October 2022; Ref: scu.88596
