Criminal Law & Practice in Scotland
| Published date | 01 January 1958 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X5803100103 |
| Date | 01 January 1958 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
20
THE
POLICE
JOURNAL
The mistake in R. v. Wilson occurred in this way. On a charge of
breaking into a cinema one
of
the witnesses was the cashier of the
cinema who stated that when she left she noticed the appellant standing
at a corner and that, after having coffee, she then returned to the
cinema. After the jury had been out some time considering their
verdict, tl.ey came back to ask the question,
"Why
did the cashier go
back?" The Court said that the right course would then have been for
the deputy chairman of quarter sessions to have read the witness's
previous evidence. But he decided to recall her and in answer to the
question she said she that had seen what she thought were suspicious
people and also that the boiler-room door was open. In R. v. Owen
(1952, 2
Q.B.
362) the ruling was given that once the summing-up
was concluded and the jury were out to consider their verdict, no
further evidence could be given, and if the jury asked a question, the
judge should either tell them that no evidence had been given on the
point and it must be taken that there was no evidence, or remind them
of the evidence if evidence had been given. In R. v. Wilson there was a
departure from this rule and it seemed to the Court more important to
maintain this principle than to disallow the appeal on the ground that
no miscarriage of justice had actually occurred. Accordingly the
conviction was quashed.
Criminal
Law
&
Practice
in
Scotland
ROAD
TRAFFIC-PRIVATE
Bus-No
ROAD
FUND
LICENCE.
Clarke v. Dundee Town Council (1957, S.L.T. 306).
THE whole question in this case eventually turned on whether the
eastern residential district of Dundee was a particular destination,
within the meaning of the Road Traffic Act, 1956.
The circumstances giving rise to the charge were that a bus had been
hired by a Club to take people home from a late night dance. Those
who travelled in the bus were
not
all members of the club. A general
announcement had been made during the dance that anyone wishing
to travel on the bus might obtain a ticket for Is. from any member of
the committee. Some, at least, of the passengers who travelled on the
bus were not members of the club holding the dance. The bus was
covering a journey
of
about nine miles. The route was laid down by a
member of the committee who, in deciding the route, took into account
the convenience of those who were to travel on the bus.
It
did
not
follow any of the normal bus routes. There was no conductor on the
bus and a passenger wishing to alight at any particular
part
of the
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