Criminal Appeal (Northern Ireland) Act 1968

JurisdictionUK Non-devolved
Citation1968 c. 21


Criminal Appeal (NorthernIreland) Act 1968

1968 CHAPTER 21

An Act to consolidate the enactments relating to the Court of Criminal Appeal in Northern Ireland, the jurisdiction of the Court and appeals therefrom to the House of Lords.

[8th May 1968]

Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—

I The Court of Criminal Appeal

Part I

The Court of Criminal Appeal

S-1 The Court.

1 The Court.

(1) The Court of Criminal Appeal in Northern Ireland constituted by the Criminal Appeal (Northern Ireland) Act 1930 shall continue in existence with the same jurisdiction as heretofore, and is in this Act referred to either as ‘the Court of Criminal Appeal’ or as ‘the Court’.

(2) All the judges of the Supreme Court shall be judges of the Court.

(3) The Court shall be a superior court of record and shall, for the purposes and subject to the provisions of this Act, have full power to determine, in accordance with this Act, any question necessary to be determined for the purpose of doing justice in the case before the Court.

(4) Except as provided by this Act, the determination by the Court of any appeal or other matter which they have power to determine shall be final and no appeal shall lie from the Court to any other court.

S-2 Sittings.

2 Sittings.

(1) For the purpose of hearing and determining appeals, or any matter preliminary or incidental to an appeal, the Court of Criminal Appeal shall be summoned in accordance with directions given by the Lord Chief Justice and shall sit in Belfast except in cases where the Lord Chief Justice gives special directions that it shall sit at some other place.

(2) Provision shall be made by rules of court for securing sittings of the court, if necessary, during vacation.

S-3 Assistance for transaction of business of the Court.

3 Assistance for transaction of business of the Court.

(1) Any such person as follows, namely,—

(a ) a person who, not being a judge of the Court of Appeal or the High Court, has held the office of a judge of either of those courts;

(b ) a person who, neither being a judge of the Court of Appeal or the High Court nor having held the office of a judge of either of those courts, holds or has held the office of a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary and, on his appointment to that office, was qualified for appointment as a judge of the High Court or the Court of Appeal,

may at any time, at the request of the Lord Chief Justice, sit and act as a judge of the Court of Criminal Appeal.

(2) Every person while sitting and acting under this section shall have all the jurisdiction, powers and privileges of a judge of the Court of Criminal Appeal, but shall not otherwise be deemed to be a judge of the Court or to have ceased to be a member of any other tribunal of which he is a member.

(3) A person who has sat and acted under this section shall although the period has expired during which he was requested so to sit and act, attend the sittings of the Court for the purpose of giving judgment in, or otherwise acting in relation to, any case heard by the Court while he so sat and acted.

(4) For any period during which a person (other than one holding office as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary) sits and acts under this section there may be paid to him, out of moneys provided by Parliament, such remuneration and allowances as the Treasury may, after consultation with the Lord Chief Justice, determine.

S-4 Constitution of the Court for hearing appeals.

4 Constitution of the Court for hearing appeals.

(1) Subject to the provisions of this section and the section next following, the Court of Criminal Appeal shall be duly constituted, for the purpose of hearing and determining appeals or any matter preliminary or incidental to an appeal, if it consists either of two or of three judges.

(2) Any matter preliminary or incidental to an appeal may be heard and determined by a single judge of the Court; but an appellant who is aggrieved by the decision of a single judge on any such matter shall be entitled to have the matter re-heard and determined by the Court as constituted under subsection (1) of this section.

(3) The Lord Chief Justice, if present, and in his absence the senior member of the Court, shall be president of the Court.

S-5 Judgment.

5 Judgment.

(1) Where an appeal or matter before the Court of Criminal Appeal is heard by two judges and those judges differ in opinion, it shall be re-heard by three judges; and where an appeal or matter before the Court is heard by three judges, it shall be determined according to the opinion of the majority of those judges.

(2) Unless the Court direct to the contrary in a case where they consider the question to be one of law on which it would be convenient that separate judgments should be pronounced by the members of the Court,—

(a ) the judgment of the Court shall be pronounced by the president of the Court or such other member of the Court hearing the case as the president directs; and

(b ) no judgment with respect to the determination of any question shall be separately pronounced by any other member of the Court.

S-6 The Registrar.

6 The Registrar.

(1) The Registrar of the Supreme Court shall be the registrar of the Court of Criminal Appeal and is in this Act referred to as ‘the Registrar’.

(2) The Lord Chief Justice may direct any other officer of, or attached to, the Supreme Court to render such assistance to the Registrar as the Lord Chief Justice may think necessary for the purposes of this Act.

(3) In the event of a vacancy in the office of the Registrar, or of the incapacity of the Registrar to act from any reason, the Lord Chief Justice may direct another officer of the Supreme Court to exercise the powers and perform the duties of the Registrar under this Act.

S-7 Functions of Lord Chief Justice under ss. 1 to 6.

7 Functions of Lord Chief Justice under ss. 1 to 6.

7. Any direction which may be given by the Lord Chief Justice under the preceding sections may, in the event of any vacancy in that office or in the event of the incapacity of the Lord Chief Justice to act from any reason, be given by the senior judge of the Court of Criminal Appeal.

II Appeals to Court of Criminal Appeal

Part II

Appeals to Court of Criminal Appeal

Appeal against conviction and sentence

Appeal against conviction and sentence

S-8 Right of appeal.

8 Right of appeal.

(1) A person convicted on indictment may appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeal against his conviction—

(a ) on any ground which involves a question of law alone; and

(b ) with the leave of the Court, on any ground which involves a question of fact alone, or a question of mixed law and fact, or on any other ground which appears to the Court to be a sufficient ground of appeal;

but if the judge of the court of trial grants a certificate that the case is fit for appeal on a ground which involves a question of fact, or of mixed law and fact, an appeal lies under this subsection without the leave of the Court of Criminal Appeal.

(2) A person convicted on indictment may appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeal against the sentence passed on his conviction, unless the sentence is one fixed by law; but an appeal under this subsection lies only with the leave of the Court of Criminal Appeal.

S-9 Grounds for allowing appeal against conviction.

9 Grounds for allowing appeal against conviction.

(1) Except as provided by this Act, the Court of Criminal Appeal shall allow an appeal against conviction where they are of opinion—

(a ) that the verdict of the jury should be set aside on the ground that under all the circumstances of the case it is unsafe or unsatisfactory; or

(b ) that the judgment of the court of trial should be set aside on the ground of a wrong decision of any question of law; or

(c ) that there was a material irregularity in the course of the trial,

and in any other case shall dismiss the appeal:

Provided that the Court may, notwithstanding that they are of opinion that the point raised in the appeal might be decided in favour of the appellant, dismiss the appeal if they consider that no miscarriage of justice has actually occurred.

(2) Except as provided by this Act, if the Court of Criminal Appeal allow an appeal against conviction, they shall quash the conviction.

(3) An order of the Court quashing a conviction shall, except when under section 13 of this Act the appellant is ordered to be retried, operate as a direction to the clerk of the Crown and peace acting for the court of trial to enter, instead of the record of conviction, a judgment and verdict of acquittal.

S-10 Power to substitute conviction of alternative offence.

10 Power to substitute conviction of alternative offence.

(1) This section applies where an appellant has been convicted of an offence and the jury could on the indictment have found him guilty of some other offence, and on the finding of the jury it appears to the Court of Criminal Appeal that the jury must have been satisfied of facts which proved him guilty of that other offence.

(2) The Court may, instead of allowing or dismissing the appeal, substitute for the verdict found by the jury a verdict of guilty of that other offence and pass such sentence in substitution for the sentence passed at the trial as may be warranted in law by the verdict so substituted.

S-11 Sentence when appeal allowed on part of an indictment.

11 Sentence when appeal allowed on part of an indictment.

11. Where a person appeals against conviction on an indictment containing two or more counts and the Court of Criminal Appeal allow the appeal in respect of part of the...

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