In the Irish Courts
| DOI | 10.1177/002201834901300307 |
| Date | 01 July 1949 |
| Published date | 01 July 1949 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
In the Irish Courts
COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEAL
IN
EIRE
PRISONER'S
UNSWORN
STATEMENT:
POLICE
EVIDENCE
OF
CHARACTER
The People (A.-G.) v, Riordan
TWO points of general significance emerge from
the
decision of
the
Court of Criminal Appeal in The
People (A.-G.) o. Riordan
(1948,
I.R.
416).
In
the
first
place,
the
Court
had
to
decide upon
the
nature
of
an
unsworn
statement
made
by
the
prisoner from
the
dock, in
the
circumstances
that
he was unrepresented
at
the
trial
and
called no witnesses on his behalf
and
gave no evidence.
The
official stenographer
had
treated this statement as
being on
the
same footing as a plea made
by
counsel
and
had
not
included
it
in
the
official transcript of
the
case.
But, accepting
the
statement of Kennedy C.]. in A.-G. v.
Joyce &Walsh (1929,
I.R.
526, 533)
that
"it
is
the
duty
of
the
official stenographers to report every case fully
and
in
every detail",
the
Court held
that
the
prisoner's unsworn
statement from
the
dock was
"an
integral
part
of
the
evidence upon which
the
jury
had
to
find its verdict", so
that
"it
was clearly necessary
that
the
transcript in this
case should include
the
whole of
that
statement made
by
the
accused" (per Gavan Duffy P.,
at
p. 417). This decision
therefore adds weight to
the
judgment of Kennedy C.].
(supra,
at
p. 534), which concluded with
the
words
:-"
I
therefore
take
this opportunity of impressing on
the
steno-
graphers
the
importance of an absolutely complete report
of
the
trial
and
of every word spoken in
the
course of
it".
The second point raised is
the
nature
of
the
'evidence
of character' which should be given
by
the
police after
conviction
but
before sentence. The accused in
the
instant
case was convicted on eight counts of having obtained
money
by
false pretences. Before sentence, asuperin-
tendent
of police, having informed
the
Court
that
there
J93
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