A conspiracy to effect some other unlawfulness but which has no tendency to cause a miscarriage of justice in curial proceedings, is not a conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. If no proceedings of any kind are in contemplation at the time the relevant act by the accused was done, then there is no interference with the course of justice.
Unless the principles governing the offence of perverting the course of justice which emerge from the reported cases are well recognised and properly applied there is a danger of bringing into existence a hitherto unrecognised and unwarranted extension of the ambit of this offence. Caution is required in extending the ambit of this offence.
Watkins LJ gave an illustrative list of instances of perverting the course of justice: ‘That conduct includes giving false information to the police with the object of among other things putting the police on a false trail, obstructing the police in their inquiries into crime, the destruction of or other interferences with evidence and bringing wrongful influence to bear upon witnesses or potential witnesses.’ He went on to urge caution in extending the ambit of the offence to new fact patterns: ‘In our judgment unless the principles governing the offence of perverting the course of justice which emerge from the reported cases are well recognised and properly applied there is a danger of bringing into existence a hitherto unrecognised and unwarranted extension of the ambit of this offence.’
Judges:
Watkins LJ
Citations:
[1982] QB 372, [1982] 1 All ER 96, (1981) 73 Cr App R 333
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Regina v Clark CACD 4-Apr-2003
The defendant had been involved in a car crash. He drove his car home, and reported the accident only the following day. He appealed against a conviction for attempting to pervert the course of justice, having defeated any possibility of his being . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Crime
Updated: 08 July 2022; Ref: scu.181078