Divisional Court Cases

DOI10.1177/002201836703100402
Published date01 October 1967
Date01 October 1967
Subject MatterArticle
Divisional Court Cases
ADMISSIBILITY OF EXPERT EVIDENCE
Director
of
Public Prosecutions v.
A.B.C.
Chewing Gum
Ltd.
THIS case (1967 3W.L.R. 493) raised two questions:
(1) Whether evidence of child psychiatrists was admis-
sible to prove
that
certain bubble
gum
"battle cards"
had atendency to corrupt or deprave young children.
(2) Whether s. 4(1) of
the
Obscene Publications Act 1959
which enables expert evidence to be given of
the
merits of a publication which is found to be obscene,
showed
that
expert evidence as to whether
the
article
has a tendency to deprave or corrupt was inadmissible.
On
the
4th
July 1966 information was preferred before
Romford justices against
the
defendants charging
them
with
publishing for gain divers obscene articles, namely 43 bubble
gum "battle cards" contrary to s. 2(1) of
the
Obscene Publica-
tions Act 1959. Evidence for
the
prosecution showed
that
a
Mr.
O'Connell took a confectionery shop opposite an infants
and elementary school.
Part
of
the
stock taken over consisted
of bubble
gum
bought from
the
defendants.
In
the
packets of
bubble gum were "battle cards" in a numbered series, a
complete set consisting of 73 cards. Both children and adults
bought
the
gum
and swopped cards so as to obtain acomplete
set. At
the
request of
the
head mistress of
the
school
Mr.
O'Connell stopped selling
the
bubble gum.
The
justices
found
that
the
defendants contemplated
that
the
cards would
be sold in and with
the
packets of bubble
gum
to children of
5 years and upwards and
that
the
children would swop cards
so as to obtain acomplete set.
They
tendered expert witnesses
in child psychiatry to give evidence of
the
likely effect
upon
children of various ages of
the
53 cards selected by
the
prosecu-
tion taken singly or together.
The
defence submitted
that
such
evidence was inadmissible and
the
justices upheld this
sub-
mission.
The
justices found
that
none of
the
cards when seen
Z31

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