Criminal Law and Practice in Scotland
| Date | 01 April 1947 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X4702000204 |
| Published date | 01 April 1947 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
THE
POLICE
JOURNAL
the justices.
It
was held by Mr. Justice Cassels at Assizes that this
method of taking depositions failed to comply with the requirements
of the Indictable Offences Act, 1848, s. 17, that the committal for trial
was therefore bad and that the indictment must be quashed. He was
unable to accept the evidence of the clerk to the justices
that
this
practice had been brought about by a shortage of staff and that it
represented a saving of time. His lordship was at a loss to understand
why so simple a method as is observed in the Metropolitan Magis-
trates Courts, and in many others, should not have been observed in
this case.
It
seemed to him to be a very simple thing to listen to the evidence
as it is given by a witness, to make a record of it in narrative form in
ordinary handwriting, and to read it over when the witness
had
finished
his or her evidence and then invite the witness to sign
it:
"That
practice has many advantages and makes for accuracy, whereas the
system adopted in this case is calculated easily to lead to error.
Under
the system as generally adopted, what is duly recorded is what the
witness is actually saying at that very moment, not something
that
he
or she may have said to some police officer at some other stage; and,
further, immediately the evidence of a particular witness is finished
it
is read over to the witness, so that what has been said is fresh in the
mind of the witness, and he or she is in a position at once to correct it.
If
there is a delay ofthree hours or more after the witness has concluded
his evidence and the witness is then invited to correct, not a contem-
poraneously written statement of what he had said,
but
something
which is a mixture of some previous statement amended, or added to,
or subtracted from, the witness may hesitate a long time about altering
it or saying that he has not said that which is there recorded."
Criminal
Law
and Practice in Scotland
IMPROPER
CONDUCT
IN
A
PUBLIC
DANCE
HALL
THE decision now reported, being
that
of a lay magistrate only,
is not
binding;
but
it may serve as a guide to police officers
whose duty it is to supervise the conduct of public dance halls.
It
is especially useful in that it throws light upon the scope of a dance
hall licence, the responsibility of a licence holder for his servant's
default, and the positive duty of the servant on the occasion of an
improper incident on the premises.
Three
citizens of Edinburgh, in their capacity of trustees, were
charged, in the local
burgh
court, that, on a particular occasion, they
did fail to maintain good order and decency in the New Locarno
98
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