In the Scottish Courts
| Published date | 01 October 1958 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002201835802200408 |
| Date | 01 October 1958 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
In the Scottish Courts
ADMISSIBILITY OF EVIDENCE
THE admissibility, or otherwise, of evidence can be a
fruitful field for argument
and
discussion
and
fairly recently
the
High
Court
of Justiciary had occasion to take notice of
three
cases which all related to
that
subject.
The
circum-
stances of each case were, of course, entirely different
but
the
broad principle applied was always
the
same.
McKie v.
H.M.
Advocate(reported in 1958,
S.L.T.
at page
152) was a case in which McKie, having been involved in a
motor accident, was charged with acontravention of s. 15 of
the
Road Traffic Act, 1930. He consented to be medically
examined,
and
the
now well known procedure laid down in
Reid v. Nixon (1948,
J.e.
68) was strictly complied with.
Some time after
the
accident it was discovered that, at
the
time of
the
accident, aman had been killed.
The
reason why
this had not come to light earlier was that the body had been
thrown clear of
the
roadway. On this state of affairs McKie
was charged with culpable homicide
and
went to trial on that
charge.
In
the
course of
the
trial evidence of the medical
examination was tendered,
and
allowed, despite objections by
the
defence.
McKie
was found guilty, sentenced to 3 years'
imprisonment and appealed.
The
ground of this appeal was that when he gave his
consent to the medical examination he did so because
the
charge against
him
was contravening s. 15 of the Road Traffic
Act
and
not the
much
more serious charge which was eventu-
ally preferred against him. He argued that it was incompetent
to use the evidence which was obtained on that limited footing
to support the more serious charge of culpable homicide at
common law.
In
the course of his opinion
the
Lord
Justice Clerk,
Lord
Thomson, in dealing with this problem,
said:-
308
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