Court of Criminal Appeal
| DOI | 10.1177/002201834701100105 |
| Published date | 01 January 1947 |
| Date | 01 January 1947 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Court of Criminal Appeal
VOLUNTARY
STATEMENTS
NOT
NECESSARILY
ADMISSIBLl':
IN
EVIDENCE
R. v. Knight &Thompson
THE appellants in this case
(31
Cr. App. R. 52) were
convicted
at
Surrey
quarter
sessions of driving
away
amotor-car
without
the
owner's consent. On
arrest
each
of
the
appellants
made
a
voluntary
statement,
in which he
admitted
not
only
the
offence charged
but
also a series of
other
offences. Counsel for
the
prosecution proposed
to
put
in evidence only those portions of
the
statements
which
related
to
the
offence charged,
but
the
Chairman ruled,
wrongly as
the
Court of Criminal Appeal held,
that
the
statements
should be read in
their
entirety.
In
the
state-
ments
each of
the
appellants
admitted
that
he
had
not
only gone
out
on
the
particular
night
in
the
car
obviously
to
commit
crime-.
they
had
taken
things from
stationary
motor-cycles
and
then
when
they
met
the
police officer
took
them
back
again-but
also
that
on previous occasions
the
first
appellant
had
committed
two
felonies, one
three
months
earlier.
The
second
appellant
further
admitted
that
he was
guilty
of possessing a
gun
without
afirearms
certificate,
and
he also
related
how on
the
particular
night
they
had
gone
round
together
obviously searching for
things
to
pick up from
other
cars.
The
appellants
had
not
put
their
character
in issue so as
to
make
evidence of
their
past
record admissible in contradiction.
It
was
held
that
the
statements
should
not
have
been
admitted
and
read
in
toto before
the
jury. Lewis J.,
delivering
the
judgment
of
the
Court (Humphreys
and
Henn
Collins J
J.)"
said:
"The
effect of
that
was
that
the
jury
had
before
them
the
fact
that
the
two appellants,
whose characters were
not
in issue,
had
been
guilty
of
other
crimes.
That
was
contrary
to
the
rules of evidence,
and
in
this
case was a
matter
of considerable
importance
60
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