R v Vye ; R v Wise ; R v Stephenson
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) |
| Judgment Date | 18 February 1993 |
| Date | 18 February 1993 |
Court of Appeal
Before Lord Taylor of Gosforth, Lord Chief Justice, Mr Justice Judge and Mr Justice Hidden
Regina
and
Vye Regina v Wise Regina v Stephenson
Criminal procedure - defendant's good character - judge's direction- guidance
Effect of accused's good character
Guidance on the direction judges should give of the effect of a defendant's good character was provided by the Court of Appeal when delivering reserved judgment on appeals in three cases listed together all based on criticisms of the judges' directions to the jury on the effect of good character.
The situation concerning such directions regarding the relevance of good character to the defendant's credibility (the first limb) and his propensity to behave as alleged by the Crown (the second limb) had been described as something of a lottery.
The appeals were brought by John Arthur Wye, aged 50, of Anchor Road, Bournemouth; Peter Frederick James Wise, aged 36, of Lower Road, Hextable, Kent and Malcolm Stephenson, aged 37, of Hindhead Gardens, Northolt.
Mr Christopher Clark, QC and Mr Paul Garlick for Vye; Mr Christopher Clark, QC and Mr Peter Digney for Wise; Mr Michael Wolkind for Stephenson; all assigned by the Registrar of Criminal Appeals; Mr Martin Wilson, QC and Mr John Coveny, Mr James Bullen and Mr Nicholas Brown for the Crown.
THE LORD CHIEF...
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270 cases
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Romeo Cannonier Appellant v DPP Respondent [ECSC]
...so insurmountable that, even with a good character direction given to the jury, his conviction was inevitable. R v Vye and Others (1993) 97 Cr. App. R. 134 applied; Eversley Thompson v The Queen [1998] A.C. 811 applied; Teeluck and John v The State of Trinidad and Tobago [2005] UKPC 14; [2......
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Romeo Cannonier Appellant v DPP Respondent [ECSC]
...so insurmountable that, even with a good character direction given to the jury, his conviction was inevitable. R v Vye and Others (1993) 97 Cr. App. R. 134 applied; Eversley Thompson v The Queen [1998] A.C. 811 applied; Teeluck and John v The State of Trinidad and Tobago [2005] UKPC 14; [2......
- Teeluck and another v State of Trinidad and Tobago
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Mattison v R
...91 Cr. App. R. 131, referred to. (6) R. v. CameronUNK(1989), 26 J.L.R. 453, dicta of Wright J.A. applied. (7) R. v. Vye, [1993] 1 W.L.R. 471; [1993] 3 All E.R. 241, dicta of Lord Taylor, C.J. applied. (8) Singh v. State, [2006] 1 W.L.R. 146; [2005] 4 All E.R. 781; [2006] 2 LRC 409; (2005), ......
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4 books & journal articles
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The Admissibility of Polygraph Evidence in English Criminal Proceedings
...itmight amount to evidence of bad character67).61 R vRobinson [1994] 3 All ER 346.62 Ibid.63 R vRowton (1865) Le & Ca 520.64 R vVye [1993] 1 WLR 471.65 R v Redgrave (1981) 74 Cr App R 10.66 (1987) 43 DLR (4th) 641.67 If such evidence did amount to evidence of the accused’s bad character, an......
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Privy Council
...befollowed and applied in Trinidad and Tobago, was similarly bypassed.Of greater substance was the second ground of appeal. In R vVye[1993] 1 WLR 471, the Court of Appeal gave firm guidance on therelevant principles to be applied in ‘good character’ cases. Essentially, asthe House of Lords......
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Revised Guidance on Good Character Directions
...which future courts should need to con-sider in relation to this issue are Hunter itself, the decision of the Court of Appeal in RvVye [1993] 1WLR 471 and that of the House of Lords in RvAziz [1995] 3 All ER 149. The guidance provided by theCourt of Appeal in Hunter (at [77]–[103]) is as fo......
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Foreign criminal convictions and character directions
...relevant both tothe defendant’s credibility and to the likelihood of them having committed the offence with which theyare charged (RvVye [1993] 1 WLR 471; RvAziz [1995] 3 All ER 149). Thus in Vye the Court of Appealidentified;...it must be for the trial judge in each case to decide how he t......
