House of Lords
| DOI | 10.1177/002201836502900106 |
| Date | 01 January 1965 |
| Published date | 01 January 1965 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
House of Lords
EXCLUSION OF RECORDS AS HEARSAY EVIDENCE
Myers v. Director
of
Public Prosecutions
IT was said in this case
that
certain evidence in
the
form
of
a
manufacturer's
records was in practice admitted at
the
Central Criminal
Court
and
not
excluded on
the
ground
that
it was, technically, hearsay evidence of
the
contents of
the
records
when
someone who was
not
the
original compiler of
the
records
produced
them.
The
Court
of Criminal Appeal
thought
that
they should be admitted as a kind of exception to,
or
qualification of,
the
ordinary hearsay principle.
But
by a
majority of three
(Lords
Reid,
Morris
of
Borth-y-Gest
and
Hodson) to two
(Lords
Pearce
and
Donovan)
the
House of
Lords
was
not
prepared to relax
the
ordinary rule of hearsay
evidence
and
rejected
the
evidence (1964, 3
W.L.R.
145).
"Truth
must
be withheld from
jury",
is
the
apt
titling to
the
case
used
by
the
Weekly Law Reports.
The
appellant was charged
with
another
man
with con-
spiracy to receive stolen cars,
with
conspiracy to defraud
the
purchasers of stolen cars,
and
with receiving cars knowing
them
to have been stolen.
The
prosecution
sought
to establish
that, in
the
case of
22
cars, an identical wrecked car
had
been
purchased by
the
appellant, or
the
other
man,
and
that
the
stolen cars
had
been sold by
them
after each one
had
been
given
the
registration
number
and
other
identification
numbers
of
the
wrecked car so purchased.
The
owner of each stolen
car was asked to identify it.
The
appellant admitted purchas-
ing
12 of
the
wrecked cars
and
selling 12 cars bearing
the
same
registration
numbers
as
the
12
wrecked cars,
but
he contended
that
the
wrecked cars
had
been repaired
and
rebuilt,
and
that
they
were
not
the
stolen cars.
He
further
contended
that
in
rebuilding
the
wrecked cars he had innocently removed
the
identification marks
and
plates
and
had
replaced
them
on
the
rebuilt cars, so
that
the
numbers
registered in respect of those
cars corresponded.
42
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