David Cullen Bain v The Queen

JurisdictionUK Non-devolved
CourtPrivy Council
JudgeLord Hoffmann
Judgment Date16 March 2009
Neutral Citation[2009] UKPC 4
Docket NumberAppeal No 9 of 2006
Date16 March 2009
David Cullen Bain
Appellant
and
The Queen
Respondent

[2009] UKPC 4

Present at the hearing:-

Lord Hoffmann

Lord Scott of Foscote

Lord Mance

Appeal No 9 of 2006

Privy Council

[Delivered by Lord Hoffmann]

1

On 10 May 2007 the Privy Council allowed an appeal by David Bain against his convictions in 1995 on five counts of murder and ordered a retrial. The appellant now petitions the Privy Council to discharge the order for a retrial and substitute an acquittal. The grounds for the application are that events which have occurred since the hearing before the Board, including the discovery of some information about previous matters, make it unjust for the appellant to be tried again. At the conclusion of the hearing on 8 December 2008 their Lordships announced that they would humbly advise Her Majesty that the petition should be dismissed. Their reasons follow.

2

On 26 July 2007 there was a hearing in the High Court before Panckhurst J at which counsel for the appellant advised that an application for a stay of the prosecution would be made. The judge directed that it should be heard before the end of 2007. No application had been filed by 2 November, when the judge directed that any pre-trial applications be filed before the end of that month. On 29 November 2007 he recorded that any such application was to be filed before the Christmas vacation.

3

A draft stay application without affidavits was filed on 21 December 2007. On 5 February 2008 the judge directed that any stay application was to be filed by 24 April and argued in the week commencing 12 May. By this time the judge was becoming anxious about the delay in bringing the case to trial. On 13 May the stay application was not yet ready and the judge felt that he had no option but to adjourn the trial, then fixed to begin in August 2008, to 16 February 2009.

4

On 21 August 2008 the appellant's counsel filed a memorandum indicating that this petition to the Privy Council would be filed and that in the meanwhile the stay application before the judge would not be pursued. The judge understandably expressed concern that an excursion to London might result in the stay application to his court being made on the eve of the date fixed for trial. Meanwhile, he gave a number of interlocutory rulings about the admissibility of evidence and the like, some of which were appealed to the Court of Appeal.

5

The...

Get this document and AI-powered insights with a free trial of vLex and Vincent AI

Get Started for Free

Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant

  • Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database

  • Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength

  • Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities

  • Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting

vLex

Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant

  • Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database

  • Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength

  • Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities

  • Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting

vLex

Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant

  • Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database

  • Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength

  • Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities

  • Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting

vLex

Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant

  • Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database

  • Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength

  • Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities

  • Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting

vLex

Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant

  • Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database

  • Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength

  • Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities

  • Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting

vLex

Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant

  • Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database

  • Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength

  • Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities

  • Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting

vLex
8 cases
  • Ricardo Farrington v The King
    • United Kingdom
    • Privy Council
    • 22 April 2025
    ...necessary to vary or rescind its previous advice which is alleged to have been vitiated by unfair procedural error. In Bain v The Queen [2009] UKPC 4; 2009 WL 678788 the Board stated, at para 6, that: “The Privy Council, like other final courts of appeal, has an inherent jurisdiction to di......
  • Ricardo Farrington v The King
    • United Kingdom
    • Privy Council
    • 10 December 2024
    ...to vary or rescind its previous advice which is alleged to have been vitiated by unfair procedural error. In Bain v. The Queen [2009] U.K.P.C. 4; 2009 W.L. 678788 the Board stated, at para 6, that: “The Privy Council, like other final courts of appeal, has an inherent jurisdiction to disch......
  • Omar Archer v Commissioner of Police
    • Bahamas
    • Court of Appeal (Bahamas)
    • 19 March 2019
    ...Martin, Counsel for the Appellant Mr. Francis Wilson, with Mr. Timothy Bailey, Counsel for the Respondent Bain v The Queen (New Zealand) [2009] UKPC 4 followed R v Daniel [1977] Q.B. 364 considered R v Gohil [2018] EWCA Crim 140 considered R v Grantham [1969] 2 Q,B. 574 R v Henry [2018]......
  • R (on the application of Bancoult (No 2)) v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
    • United Kingdom
    • Supreme Court
    • 29 June 2016
    ...context in the Court of Appeal in Taylor v Lawrence [2002] EWCA Civ 90; [2003] QB 528 and followed by the Privy Council in Bain v The Queen [2009] UKPC 4. As the Privy Council said in the latter case at para 6, quoting Lord Woolf CJ at p 547 in the former case: "What will be of the greatest......
  • Get Started for Free