Source: All England Reporter
Publisher Citation: [2005] All ER (D) 18 (May)
Court: Court of Appeal, Criminal Division
Judge:

Tuckey LJ, David Steel and Gloster JJ
Representation Lindsay Hayhow (assigned by the Registrar of Criminal Appeals) for the defendant.
  Kevin Baumber (instructed by the Crown Prosecution Service) for the Crown.
Judgment Dates: 3 May 2005

Catchwords

Criminal evidence and procedure - Trial - Direction to jury - Inference to be drawn from accused's silence - Accused relying on prepared statement in interview and answering 'no comment' to questions - Accused giving evidence at trial broadly consistent with prepared statement - Judge directing jury to use common sense in determining whether assisted by silence in interview - Safety of conviction - , s 34.

The Case

In a case where the defendant had answered 'no comment' to questions asked of him in interview, but had produced a prepared statement which set out an account broadly consistent with the evidence he was later to give at trial, it had been incumbent on the recorder to direct the jury that they were not to draw an adverse inference from the silence in interview. Leaving whether such an inference might be drawn to the jury's common sense had been a significant failure, which rendered unsafe the defendant's conviction for possessing heroin with intent to supply.

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