Court of Criminal Appeal
| Date | 01 April 1958 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002201835802200205 |
| Published date | 01 April 1958 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Court
of
Criminal
Appeal
POSSESSION OF HOUSEBREAKING
INSTRUMENTS:
EVIDENCE TO REBUT LAWFUL EXCUSE
R. v.
Hodges
THE appellant in
R.
v.
Hodges
(41 Cr.
App.
R. 218) was
charged with beingfound by night in possession of house-
breakingimplements, namely, two skeleton keys, without lawful
excuse.
On
appeal against conviction it was argued
that
the
evidence of two witnesses for
the
prosecution should not have
been admitted to
rebut
the
defence
that
he had a lawful excuse
for
the
possession of
the
keys.
He
had
been found by night in possession of
the
keys when
in a garage, where, he said, he had gone to sleep.
He
further
said
that
he
had
filed down one of the keys to enable him to
get access to his lodgings.
The
prosecution called two men,
who stated
that
about
ten
days previously the appellant had
shown them
the
two keys, or two keys precisely similar,
and
had invited
them
to join him in an office-breaking enterprise.
It
was not suggested by the prosecution
that
it was in
pur-
suance of any agreement made as
the
result of
that
conversa-
tion
that
the
appellant was in possession of
the
keys.
In
fact,
according to
the
prosecution witnesses, they refused to join
with the appellant.
.
The
Court
(Hilbery, Barry
and
Hinchcliffe,
II.)
held
that
their evidence was rightly admitted by the recorder. According
to
the
judgment,
"A
key,
and
indeed many other objects, may
be housebreaking implements
and
so may objects used for
perfectly innocent purposes,"
and
that,
"for
the
purpose of
showing
that
in relation to the offence charged
the
skeleton
keys were housebreaking implements, it was clearly relevant
to
put
before
the
jury
the conversation
with"
the
two prosecu-
tion witnesses in which
the
appellant was proposing to use
the
keys or keys exactly similar to
them
for
the
purpose of entering
the
office
and
stealing money from the safe. Consequently,
the
lOS
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