Notes on Recent Crime
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X3801100401 |
| Published date | 01 October 1938 |
| Date | 01 October 1938 |
| Subject Matter | Notes on Recent Crime |
VOL.
XI,
NO.4
POLICE JOURNAL
OCT.-DEC., 1938
Notes
on Recent Crime
INFERENCE OF
GUILT
FROM ACCUSED'S
SILENCE
H.M.
Advocate v. Hardy
THIS case heard in the High Court of Justiciary is interest-
ing in that the summing up of the
Lord
Justice-Clerk
(Aitchison) contained a definite direction that where a pre-
sumption of guilt had been raised and not rebutted by evidence
from the defendant ajury was entitled to draw an inference
of guilt.
Briefly, the facts of the case were that a Miss Leckie, a
lady of considerable means, had died at an advanced age in
1935. After her death the defendant had written from London
to her Solicitors in Scotland representing that in 1924 he had
entered into a marriage with Miss Leckie at Gifford by
exchange of consents in the presence of two witnesses and
two women.
The
defendant produced alleged declarations by
these two witnesses purporting to be signed by them, and a
copy of an alleged declaration purporting to be signed by Miss
Leckie dated in 1928, to the effect that she had taken him as
her lawful husband. I
The
defendant was charged with attempted fraud, and
the prosecution having established the above facts went on to
call evidence showing that the documents mentioned were
forged, that the defendant and Miss Leckie were not known
at Gifford, and that he was not known at North Berwick, the
place in which Miss Leckie had spent most of her time for
some years preceding her death.
The
defendant, though
pleading'
not guilty,' did not
give evidence himself or call any witnesses.
385
THE
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