Source: All England Reporter
Publisher Citation: [2010] All ER (D) 291 (May)
Neutral Citation: [2010] EWCA Crim 1149
Court: Court of Appeal, Criminal Division
Judge:

Maurice Kay LJ, Royce and Nicol JJ
Representation Stephen Spence (assigned by the Registrar of Criminal Appeals) for the first defendant.
  Vincent Coughlin QC and Katherine Moore (assigned by the Registrar of Criminal Appeals) for the second defendant.
  Simon Spence QC and Richard Potts (instructed by the Crown Prosecution Service) for the Crown.
Judgment Dates: 28 May 2010

Catchwords

Criminal evidence - Bad character - Admissibility - Murder - Manslaughter - Deceased killed after walking stick shoved down throat - Prosecution case based on joint participation - Judge admitting evidence of one defendant's previous convictions showing propensity towards violence - Whether convictions unsafe.

The Case

Criminal evidence Bad character. Court of Appeal, Criminal Division: It was held that bad character evidence in relation to the second defendant who was convicted of manslaughter had been properly admitted in the first place and remained properly before the jury even after evidence of her co-defendants had established that she had had no physical participation in the final fatal attack which had involved shoving a walking stick down the throat of the deceased. The conviction for murder in the case of the first defendant was safe as the judge in his summing up had repeated more than once that the second defendant's police interview was not evidence against him.

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