Source: All England Reporter
Publisher Citation: [2004] All ER (D) 69 (Dec)
Neutral Citation: [2004] EWCA Crim 3104
Court: Court of Appeal, Criminal Division
Judge:

Waller LJ, Newman J and Sir Charles Mantell
Representation Jeremy Wright (assigned by the Registrar of Criminal Appeals) for the defendant.
  Toby Halliwell (instructed by the Crown Prosecution Service) for the Crown.
Judgment Dates: 3 December 2004

Catchwords

Criminal evidence and procedure - Trial - Direction to jury - Character of accused - Previous conviction - Spent previous conviction for affray - Relevance to credibility.

The Case

Although there were clearly two separate aspects to a character direction, namely credibility and propensity, both matters went to whether the jury 'believed' the defendant's evidence or 'believed' the complainant's evidence. So in a broad sense both limbs actually went to 'credibility'. In the instant case, where the defendant was on trial for attempted kidnapping and where he was asserting his positive good character, the fact that he had a previous conviction for affray was relevant to his credibility and it had been proper for the judge to have directed the jury accordingly.

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