Langan v HM Advocate
| Jurisdiction | Scotland |
| Judgment Date | 16 June 1989 |
| Neutral Citation | 1989 SCCR 379 |
| Date | 16 June 1989 |
| Docket Number | No. 25. |
| Court | High Court of Justiciary |
JC
L. J.-C. Ross, Lords Dunpark and Murray.
Evidence—Sufficiency—Murder—Identification—Pannel's blood-stained fingerprint found at locus—Pannel denying presence at locus—Whether sufficient evidence to convict pannel of murder—Whether sufficient evidence of identification.
A pannel was convicted on a charge of murder in the High Court of Justiciary. He appealed against conviction on the grounds that there was insufficient evidence identifying him as being the perpetrator of the offence. The evidence which implicated him was the finding of a single print from the forefinger of his left hand on the hot water tap of the kitchen sink. Evidence showed that this print had been deposited at a time when the finger was wet with blood, although there was insufficient blood apparently to permit any analysis. The pannel gave evidence in which he denied that he had ever been in the house of the deceased but the evidence of the fingerprint experts was not challenged.
Held (1) that there was no doubt that in appropriate cases fingerprint evidence on its own might be sufficient to entitle a jury to draw an inference that the person whose print it was was implicated and it was plain in this case that the jury were entitled to draw the inference that the appellant had been present in the house at the time that the blood of the deceased was still in a liquid state; (2) that the question whether the jury were entitled to draw the inference that the appellant had been in the house at the time and had perpetrated the crime turned upon whether there was any explanation for the presence of his fingerprint, but that in this case not only was there an absence of any explanation but he had negated any question of an explanation; and, accordingly, (3) that the jury had been entitled to draw the inference from the fingerprint that not merely he had been present when the blood was in liquid state but that he had committed the offence; and appeal refused.
George Langan was charged on an indictment at the instance of the Rt. Hon. Lord Cameron of Lochbroom, Q.C., Her Majesty's Advocate, the libel of which set forth that: "[B]etween 6th and 8th December 1987, both dates inclusive, in the house occupied by Henry Anthony McLean at Flat 15/1, 32 Pinkston Drive, Glasgow you did assault said Henry Anthony McLean, struggle violently with him, punch and kick him on the head and body, strike him repeatedly on the head with a blunt instrument and...
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Luke Mitchell V. Her Majesty's Advocate
...In such circumstances, an inference of guilt could more readily be drawn (HM Advocate v Hardy 1938 J.C. 144; Langan v HM Advocate 1989 J.C. 132). Reference was also made to Maguire v HM Advocate 2003 S.C.C.R. 758. [94] The appellant's actions had also amounted to an attempt to construct a f......
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Note Of Appeal Against Conviction By Justinas Gubinas And Nerijus Radavicius Against Her Majesty's Advocate
...or DNA has been found at a particular location and is that of the accused (Reid v HM Advocate 2017 JC 37 following Langan v HM Advocate 1989 JC 132). The only difference is that in fingerprint or DNA cases a comparison requires the involvement of an expert. Identification does not. [69] In ......
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Appeal Against Conviction By Colin Reid Against Her Majesty's Advocate
...1, in which the appellant’s fingerprints had been found on a bottle at the locus, could be distinguished. Similarly, Langan v HM Advocate 1989 JC 132, in which a fingerprint in blood had been found, was different. In the present case, there was no evidence about when the DNA had been put on......