R v Mills; R v Poole

JurisdictionEngland & Wales
JudgeLORD GOFF OF CHIEVELEY,LORD SLYNN OF HADLEY,LORD HOPE OF CRAIGHEAD,LORD CLYDE,LORD HUTTON
Judgment Date24 July 1997
Judgment citation (vLex)[1997] UKHL J0724-7
Date24 July 1997
CourtHouse of Lords

[1997] UKHL J0724-6

HOUSE OF LORDS

Lord Goff of Chieveley

Lord Slynn of Hadley

Lord Hope of Craighead

Lord Clyde

Lord Hutton

Regina
and
Mills
(Appellant)
Regina
and
Poole
(Appellant)
LORD GOFF OF CHIEVELEY

My Lords,

1

I have had the advantage of reading in draft the speech to be delivered by my noble and learned friend, Lord Hutton. I agree with it, and for the reasons which he gives I would dismiss both appeals.

LORD SLYNN OF HADLEY

My Lords,

2

I have had the advantage of reading in draft the speech prepared by my noble and learned friend, Lord Hutton. For the reasons he gives I too would dismiss the appeal.

LORD HOPE OF CRAIGHEAD

My Lords,

3

I have had the advantage of reading in draft the speech to be delivered by my noble and learned friend, Lord Hutton. I agree with it, and for the reasons which he gives I would dismiss both appeals.

LORD CLYDE

My Lords,

4

I have had the advantage of reading in draft the speech prepared by my noble and learned friend, Lord Hutton. For the reasons he gives I would dismiss the appeal.

LORD HUTTON

My Lords,

5

The issue of law which arises for decision on these appeals is whether the Crown is under a duty to provide to the defence copies of statements made by a person who has witnessed acts of violence in respect of which the two accused have been charged, where counsel for the Crown has reasonably decided that the witness is not a witness of truth and will seek to depart from, or contrive an explanation for, those statements if the witness is called as a witness for the defence, or whether the duty of the Crown is limited to furnishing only the name and address of the witness to the defence.

6

The two appellants were convicted on 26 January 1990 in the Crown Court at Bristol before Swinton Thomas J. and a jury of the murder of Hensley Hendrix Wiltshire on the night of 5/6 January 1989 and were sentenced to imprisonment for life. In February 1996 the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division), Otton L.J., Ian Kennedy J. and Keene J., granted extension of time and leave to appeal against conviction to the two appellants. The appeals were then heard and were dismissed on 16 April 1996. The Court of Appeal certified that a point of law of general public importance was involved in the decision to dismiss the appeals, but refused leave to appeal. On 5 March 1997 leave to appeal was granted by your Lordships' House. The appeals were heard together with the appeal in Reg v. Winston Brown, which also related to the Crown's duty of disclosure but where a different point of law arose which is dealt with by your Lordships in a separate judgment.

7

The Facts

8

On the night of 5/6 January 1989 four men were in the room of the appellant Poole in a house at 34 Conduit Street, Gloucester. They were the appellant Poole, the appellant Mills, a man named Ian Christopher Juke and a man named Hensley Hendricks Wiltshire. The appellants and Juke were friends. Shortly before midnight a young woman named Kimberley Stadden came to the room in order to get some amphetamine, and in the room she obtained some amphetamine from Juke. Whilst she and the four men were present in the room Wiltshire sustained very serious injuries. After sustaining those injuries he was taken out of the room and left on the pavement outside the house. An ambulance was sent for and arrived at 12.22 a.m. on 6 January and took Wiltshire to Gloucester Royal Hospital. In the hospital he was examined by a senior house officer who found him to be confused, semi-conscious and unco-operative. The doctor observed some 16 wounds on his arms, legs and face, including ovoid injuries to his lower legs. By reason of Wiltshire's unco-operative attitude the doctor was unable to suture or to record all his wounds. In the hospital a kitchen type knife was found tucked down one of his socks. Wiltshire refused to stay in hospital and was therefore discharged at 4.30 a.m. into police custody as the Metropolitan Police had requested the police in Gloucester to detain him in respect of an alleged offence in London.

9

Shortly after his arrival at Gloucester police station Wiltshire was seen by a police doctor who expressed the view that he should return to hospital, which he agreed to do. At the hospital he received further treatment before being discharged a second time into police custody and he was placed in a cell in the police station. He later collapsed in the cell and an ambulance was called and he was taken back to hospital where he died between 2.30 p.m. and 3.30 p.m. on 6 January.

10

A Home Office pathologist carried out a post mortem examination on the body of Wiltshire on the evening of 6 January and found the following injuries. There were a number of injuries to the head which could have been caused by a crowbar. There were 17 stab wounds, 13 of them in the pelvic area. There were also ovoid wounds, two on each shin, which could not have been caused either by a knife or by a crowbar, and it was the opinion of the pathologist that they were caused by some object the shape of a drill. There were three fractures of the ribs on the left side and the left fibula was also fractured. The medical evidence called by the Crown at the trial was that the injuries sustained by Wiltshire caused his death because they so damaged his muscles and bones that fatty material entered into the blood stream and led to embolisms which brought about his death.

11

It was the Crown case that both appellants had attacked Wiltshire in the room, Mills with a crowbar and Poole with a knife, and both had inflicted the wounds upon him which caused his death. The Crown accepted that on that night Wiltshire had been in an aggressive mood and had picked a fist fight with Mills, but the Crown case was that the violence used by Mills and Poole on Wiltshire was not used in lawful self defence by Mills and in lawful defence of Mills by Poole but went far beyond what was reasonably necessary for such defence. At the trial the principal witness for the Crown was Kimberley Stadden. Her evidence was as follows. When she arrived outside the door of the room she heard shouting inside the room and it stopped when she entered the room. Some time later she was sitting on the settee in the room mixing amphetamine in a glass prior to injecting herself with the drug. Wiltshire and the appellant Mills were sitting on the settee next to her talking about which of them was better at fighting, when Wiltshire got up and jogged her arm and a fight then broke out between Mills and Wiltshire. The fighting was initially punching and kicking but she then saw Mills with a crowbar which he used to strike Wiltshire, who was unarmed, several times to the legs and head. The appellant Poole joined in the fight and kicked Wiltshire twice and also used a knife on Wiltshire's arm. Wiltshire tried to get out of the room through a window but failed to do so and fell back onto a settee and then onto the floor. Mills punched him and Poole kicked him before stabbing him in the buttocks with the knife four or five times. Juke then tried to intervene to stop the violence and then stopped her from seeing any more of the violence by pushing her head into his shoulder so that she could not see. While her head was turned away she heard "a sort of squishing noise". She then saw Juke drag Wiltshire out of the room and onto the pavement of the street outside. She then walked to her flat in Gloucester which was a little under a quarter of a mile away. She met the two appellants just outside her flat and the appellants had a conversation about using a telephone to get a taxi. She noticed that they had blood on their clothing and hands.

12

At the trial Mills and Poole gave evidence in their own defence. The evidence of Mills was that when Wiltshire came to Poole's room he was in an aggressive and argumentative mood and wanted to start a fight. At a later stage Wiltshire attacked him and pulled out a knife and started to slash at him. There was a crowbar on the wall so he hit Wiltshire with it a few times to get the knife off him. There was then a pause and then Wiltshire came at him again, and in the course of the struggle Mills got hold of the knife and Wiltshire the crowbar. Wiltshire was on top of him with the crowbar striking at him, so he stabbed Wiltshire in the legs and buttocks. Mills said that he feared for his life and he used the crowbar and then the knife on Wiltshire in self defence. Defence counsel did not raise the defence of provocation on behalf of Mills, but in his summing up the learned trial judge referred to provocation as a possible defence which the jury should consider. In his evidence the appellant Poole said that he had taken no part in the fight with Wiltshire and had inflicted no injuries on him.

13

As part of the investigation into the death of Wiltshire the police took two statements from Juke. The first statement was taken on the evening of 6 January 1989 and consisted of eleven typewritten pages. The second statement was taken on 10 January 1989 and consisted of seven typewritten pages. In his first statement Juke described how after Wiltshire arrived in the room it was obvious that he had been drinking. He then successively challenged Poole, Mills and Juke himself to a fight but no fight took place at that point. At a later stage a young woman came into the room and after this Wiltshire pulled out a knife and attacked Mills with the knife and Mills used a crowbar to defend himself. At a later stage Wiltshire got hold of the crowbar and used it on Mills who managed to get hold of the knife and jab Wiltshire in the legs. At this stage he put his hands over the eyes of the young woman to shield her as there was blood everywhere. The statement continued: "Gary was well worked up but he was heavily provoked." At...

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