The judge had been wrong to direct the acquittal of two of the four defendants in a case involving an allegation of the sexual abuse of a 13-year-old girl; evidence of collusion between the complainant and a witness might be used to cast doubt on their reliability and truthfulness but it should not have been used as a reason for stopping the case.
ACQUITTALS COLLUSION CRIMINAL EVIDENCE CRIMINAL PROCEDURE IDENTIFICATION RELIABILITY SEXUAL OFFENCES TERMINATING RULINGS WHETHER JUDGE CORRECT TO DIRECT ACQUITTAL OF TWO OF FOUR DEFENDANTS
Where a family member had been convicted of the indecent assault of two children of the family, notwithstanding inconsistencies and conflicts in the evidence of the complainants, the judge had been entitled to leave the matter to the jury. In her directions to the jury, the judge had dealt fairly and clearly with the issue of alleged collusion, contamination and cross-admissibility, and had given commonsense guidance when reminding the jury that it was dealing with the evidence of children: the conviction was not unsafe as a result of the judge’s comments.
ALLEGATIONS OF SEXUAL ABUSE FROM TWO CHILD MEMBERS OF SAME FAMILY CHILDREN COLLUSION CONTAMINATED EVIDENCE CREDIBILITY OF COMPLAINANTS CRIMINAL EVIDENCE CRIMINAL JUSTICE ACT 2003 s.107 CRIMINAL PROCEDURE INCONSISTENT VERDICTS INDECENT ASSAULT JURY DIRECTIONS s.101(1) s.107(5) s.112(2) UNSAFE CONVICTIONS
Although a judge’s summing up and jury directions could have been more detailed and better tailored to the facts, they were not so deficient as to affect the safety of a conviction for the commission of sexual offences.
COLLUSION CRIMINAL JUSTICE ACT 2003 s.119(1) CRIMINAL PROCEDURE EFFECT OF SUMMING UP AND JURY DIRECTIONS ON SAFETY JURY DIRECTIONS NO CASE TO ANSWER PREVIOUS INCONSISTENT STATEMENTS s.114(2) s.119 SAFETY OF CONVICTION SEXUAL OFFENCES SUMMING UP
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