Court of Criminal Appeal
| DOI | 10.1177/002201834801200405 |
| Published date | 01 October 1948 |
| Date | 01 October 1948 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Court of Criminal Appeal
EVIDENCE
OF AN ACCOMPLICE :
ADMIssmILITY
OF CO-
DEFENDANT'S
EVIDENCE
GIVEN
AT TRIAL
R. v.
Rudd
WHILE a
statement
made in
the
absence of a defendant
by
one of his co-defendants cannot be evidence
against
the
former,
if
aco-defendant gives evidence in
the
course of
the
trial
of all of them, his evidence is evidence
for all
the
purposes of
the
case in respect of all
the
co-
defendants. This proposition was affirmed
by
the
Court
(Lord Goddard,
C.].,
Humphreys
and
Birkett,
]].)
in
R. n. Rudd (64
T.L.R.
240),
the
case of R. v. Meredith (29
Cr. App. R. 40)
not
being
an
authority
to
the
contrary:'
The
appellant in R. v. Rudd was convicted with a
co-defendant P, of receiving stolen goods. Pgave
evidence
at
the
trial. One of
the
grounds of appeal against
conviction was
that
there was no direction to
the
jury
by
the
deputy
recorder
that
the
sworn evidence of Pshould
not
be used in evidence against
the
appellant.
In
giving
the
judgment of
the
Court, Humphreys,
].
said
that
it
was
an astonishing thing for
the
Court to be told
that
ajudge
was guilty of misdirection in
that
he failed to direct
the
jury
that
the
sworn evidence given in
the
case was
not
evidence against one of
the
parties being tried.
It
was held
that
R. v. Meredith was no
authority
for saying
that
the
jury
would be wrongly directed
if
they
were told
that
the
law is
that
they
may
take
into consideration
what
is said
in evidence
by
aco-defendant.
If
the
judgment in
that
case were read as a whole
it
clearly gave no
support
for such
an
argument as
had
been advanced.
Another ground of appeal was
that
the
deputy
re-
corder
had
failed
to
warn
the
jury
how
they
should regard
the
evidence of P, which was probably
the
evidence of
an
accomplice.
In
other
words,
it
was argued
that
there
should
have
been
the
usual direction as
to
corroboration
of
the
evidence of
an
accomplice. The Court agreed
that
886
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