Source: All England Reporter
Publisher Citation: [2003] All ER (D) 64 (Nov)
Neutral Citation: [2003] EWCA Crim 3108
Court: Court of Appeal, Criminal Division
Judge:

Scott Baker LJ, Henriques and Stanley Burnton JJ
Representation Mark Hardie, solicitor advocate (assigned by the Registrar of Criminal Appeals) for the defendant.
  Ian Paton (instructed by the Crown Prosecution Service) for the Crown.
Judgment Dates: 6 November 2003

Catchwords

Criminal evidence and procedure - Trial - Summing up - Direction to jury - Inference to be drawn from accused's silence - Accused relying on pre-prepared statement in interview - Judge failing to direct jury to draw adverse inferences only from facts not mentioned in statement - Adequacy of direction - Safety of conviction - ss 34, 36.

The Case

Where a defendant produced a pre-prepared statement in a police interview, directions to the jury in relation to potential adverse inferences that might be drawn from the defendant's silence in interview, pursuant to ss34 and 36 of the should include a comparison of the defendant's evidence at trial with the pre-prepared statement to see whether there was any fact relied on which the defendant had not mentioned in the pre-prepared statement. It was only on the basis of such unmentioned facts that the jury was entitled to draw an adverse inference and the judge should give a specific direction in that regard.

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