Rikki Neave murderer James Watson loses appeal against conviction – BBC News
‘A man jailed last year for murdering a six-year-old boy in 1994 has lost his appeal against his conviction.’
BBC News, 4th September 2023
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Category: bad character
Bad Character: an essential guide to propensity evidence in health and safety prosecutions – Henderson Chambers
‘The CJA 2003 introduced a sea-change in how bad character evidence was admitted in criminal proceedings. This article is a discussion on the important but difficult subject of when and how bad character evidence may be admitted in a health and safety prosecution. In particular, we consider applications to admit Enforcement Notices issued by the Health and Safety Executive where the prosecution seeks to rely on these Notices as evidence to prove the defendant’s propensity to offend.’
Henderson Chambers, 1st November 2021
Source: www.hendersonchambers.co.uk
Drill music as bad character evidence – 6KBW College Hill
‘The past decade has seen the emergence of ‘drill music’ content increasingly used by the prosecution in criminal trials involving young, black, male defendants accused of gang-related offences.’
6KBW College Hill, 13th June 2021
Source: blog.6kbw.com
Proving Propensity via Allegations of Bad Character – 2 Hare Court
‘The approach to contested non-conviction bad character evidence has changed in the wake of the Supreme Court’s judgment in the case of R v Mitchell [2016] UKSC 55.’
2 Hare Court, 5th January 2017
Source: www.2harecourt.com
Rape accusers ‘face court ordeal by defence lawyers’ – The Guardian
‘Rape complainants are being routinely questioned in court about their sexual histories and even the way they were dressed on the night they were attacked, according to a damning dossier of case studies to be presented to MPs this week. The findings have triggered calls for the law to be tightened to protect complainants better.’
The Guardian, 4th February 2017
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Regina v Jones (Nicholas) – WLR Daily
Regina v Jones (Nicholas) [2014] WLR (D) 319
‘A finding by a tribunal that an expert’s evidence was not as objective and independent as it might have been was not evidence of bad character with sections 98 and 112 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003.’
WLR Daily, 16th July 2014
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
Regina v Mehmedov – WLR Daily
Regina v Mehmedov [2014] EWCA Crim 1523; [2014] WLR (D) 325
‘A certificate of a conviction in a member state of the European Union was admissible in evidence under section 73(1) of the Police and Criminal Act 1984 even where the conviction preceded the accession of the member state concerned to the European Union.’
WLR Daily, 18th July 2014
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
Nigella Lawson: not a victim of the criminal justice system – Halsbury’s Law Exchange
‘Nigella Lawson is a victim of domestic violence, but she is not a victim of the criminal justice system.’
Halsbury’s Law Exchange, 7th January 2014
Source: www.halsburyslawexchange.co.uk
Philpott – why wasn’t it murder and when will he be free? – Halsbury’s Law Exchange
“1.3 million people tuned into Channel 5 when the schedule was changed at 9pm on 3 April 2013 to show a documentary examining the high-profile Philpott story, featuring new material about the tragic event and subsequent trial.”
Halsbury’s Law Exchange, 8th April 2013
Source: www.halsburyslawexchange.co.uk
Regina v Dizaei – WLR Daily
Regina v Dizaei [2013] EWCA Crim 88; [2013] WLR (D) 64
“When a court was assessing the probative value of the evidence of bad character of a witness in criminal proceedings, in accordance with the provisions of section 100 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003, among the factors relevant to the admissibility judgment, the court should consider whether the admission of such evidence might make it difficult for the jury to understand the remainder of the evidence, and whether its understanding of the case as a whole might be diminished. If the conclusion was that the evidence was not of substantial probative value in establishing propensity or lack of creditworthiness of the witness, or that the evidence was not of substantial importance in the context of the case as a whole, or both, the preconditions to admissibility would not established.”
WLR Daily, 14th February 2013
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
A Salutary Lesson on Bad Character – The Devil Is In The Detail – Zenith Chambers
“In a recent Crown Court trial the Prosecution made a Bad Character application alleging that the factual basis of a previous conviction was so similar to the alleged facts of the instant case, that the previous conviction should be admitted. This was propensity with a heavy dollop of similar fact.”
Full story (PDF)
Zenith Chambers, 17th September 2012
Source: www.zenithchambers.co.uk
A Salutary Lesson on Bad Character – The Devil Is In The Detail – Zenith Chambers
“In a recent Crown Court trial the Prosecution made a Bad Character application alleging that the factual basis of a previous conviction was so similar to the alleged facts of the instant case, that the previous conviction should be admitted. This was propensity with a heavy dollop of similar fact.”
Full story (PDF)
Zenith Chambers, 17th September 2012
Source: www.zenithchambers.co.uk
The Dowler family’s ordeal is no case for silent witnesses – The Guardian
“The judge in Levi Bellfield’s trial could not spare Milly Dowler’s parents the trauma of giving evidence.”
The Guardian, 27th June 2011
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Regina v D (N); Regina v P (A); Regina v U (S) – WLR Daily
Regina v D (N); Regina v P (A); Regina v U (S) [2011] WLR (D) 166
“Evidence that a defendant had viewed child pornography was capable of being adduced in evidence at trial under section 101(1)(d) of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 to demonstrate a propensity for offences involving the sexual abuse of children.”
WLR Daily, 17th May 2011
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
Please note that once a case has been fully reported in one of the ICLR series the corresponding WLR Daily summary is removed
Regina v C – WLR Daily
Regina v C [2010] EWCA Crim 2971; [2011] WLR (D) 347
“Where a defendant wished to challenge evidence of earlier convictions which the Crown sought to deploy as relevant to the question of whether the defendant was responsible for the commission of the offences for which he was on trial, the defendant’s bare assertion that he did not commit those earlier offences was inadequate; it was essential that the defendant provide a detailed defence statement identifying all the ingredients of the case which he proposed to advance for the purpose of discharging the evidential burden of proving that he did not commit the earlier offences.”
WLR Daily, 23rd December 2010
Source: www.lawreports.co.uk
Please note once a case has been fully reported in one of the ICLR series the corresponding WLR Daily summary is removed.
Attorney General: Contempt of Court: why it still matters – Attorney General’s Office
“The Attorney General, Dominic Grieve QC MP, has delivered the Criminal Bar Association’s Kalisher lecture entitled ‘Contempt of Court: why it still matters’.”
Attorney General’s Office, 12th October 2010
Source: www.attorneygeneral.gov.uk
Regina v Hamer – WLR Daily
Regina v Hamer [2010] WLR (D) 235
“A fixed penalty notice which had been issued to a defendant pursuant to s 2 of the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001 was not a conviction, admission of guilt, proof that a crime had been committed, or a stain on the defendant’s character, and therefore could not be regarded as evidence which impugned the character of the defendant or admitted as such.”
WLR Daily, 20th August 2010
Source: www.lawreports.co.uk
Please note once a case has been fully reported in one of the ICLR series the corresponding WLR Daily summary is removed.
Regina v Brewster – WLR Daily
Regina v Brewster [2010] EWCA Crim 1194; [2010] WLR (D) 159
“Where a party sought to admit evidence of a witness’s bad character which bore only indirectly on his credibility, and that credibility was a matter in issue in the proceedings and of substantial importance in the context of the case as a whole, such evidence was only admissible pursuant to s 100(1)(b) of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 as evidence of substantial probative value on the issue of creditworthiness if it was reasonably capable of assisting a fair minded jury to reach a view as to whether the witness’s evidence was worthy of belief.”
WLR Daily, 25th June 2010
Source: www.lawreports.co.uk
Please note once a case has been fully reported in one of the ICLR series the corresponding WLR Daily summary is removed.
Regina v Miller – WLR Daily
Regina v Miller [2010] EWCA Crim 1153; [2010] WLR (D) 142
“In criminal proceedings, the circumstances in which one party would be permitted pursuant to s 100(1) of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 to ask a witness a question in cross-examination with a view to eliciting an answer implicating that witness in bad behaviour, which behaviour that party would be otherwise unable to prove, were infrequent and limited in scope.”
WLR Daily, 3rd June 2010
Source: www.lawreports.co.uk
Please note once a case has been fully reported in one of the ICLR series the corresponding WLR Daily summary is removed.
Regina v Braithwaite – WLR Daily
Regina v Braithwaite [2010] EWCA Crim 1082; [2010] WLR (D) 141
“Material contained in police crime reports that unproven allegations had been made against a person who was someone other than a defendant, or that that person had been investigated in respect of an offence, would rarely be of substantial probative value to an issue at trial sufficient to render it admissible as evidence of bad character against that person pursuant to s 100(1)(b) of the Criminal Justice Act 2003.”
WLR Daily, 3rd June 2010
Source: www.lawreports.co.uk
Please note once a case has been fully reported in one of the ICLR series the corresponding WLR Daily summary is removed.
