Court of Criminal Appeal
| Date | 01 April 1957 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002201835702100204 |
| Published date | 01 April 1957 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Court of
Criminal
Appeal
CORROBORATIVE EVIDENCE AND INDECENT ASSAULT
ON ADULT MALE
R. v.
Burgess
IT has now been clearly laid down by the
Court
of
Criminal Appeal (Pilcher, Ormerod and Ashworth,
JJ.)
in R.
TJ.
Burgess
(40 Cr.
App.
R. 144)
that
it is
just
as desirable
that
a
jury
should be warned of the danger of convicting on
the
evidence of the complainant in the absence of corroboration in
the
case of indecent assault on an adult male as in any other
case of indecent assault or sexual offence.
The
appellant had been convicted at Middlesex sessions
of indecent assault on a male person
and
fined
£10
and
ordered
to pay £50 costs.
The
charge was
that
on a certain evening he
went into a cinema
and
found himselfsitting next to a
man
who
turned
out
to be a police officer off duty,
and
who alleged
that
in the course of the performance the appellant indecently
assaulted him.
The
police officer
then
took him to the
manager's office
and
some conversation took place there, and
the appellant was arrested
and
charged with the offence.
The
only real evidence in the case was the evidence of
the
police
officer on the one
hand
and
that
of the appellant on
the
other.
There
was some suggestion that the conversation which took
place in the manager's office between the appellant
and
the
police officer might have amounted to an admission,
but
this
was not pressed at the trial,
and
on
the
information before
the
Court
of Criminal Appeal it did not appear to amount to an
admission or to be corroboration of the allegation made by the
police officer.
The
Deputy-Chairman, in summing up,
omitted to warn the
jury
of
the
desirability of corroboration in
a case of this kind.
The
summing up was satisfactory in
other
ways.
There
is no doubt,
and
it was admitted on behalf of the
prosecution,
that
it is
the
practice of judges in cases of this
kind to tell
the
jury
that it is desirable
that
the evidence of
the
complainant should be corroborated.
It
was, however, urged
132
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