Recent Judicial Decisions
| Author | William J. Priestley |
| Published date | 01 November 2004 |
| Date | 01 November 2004 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1350/pojo.77.4.327.58966 |
WILLIAM J. PRIESTLEY
Legal Correspondent
Email: aretecs@hotmail.com
RECENT JUDICIAL DECISIONS
Video Evidence from a Complainant Suffering from
Alzheimer’s Disease
R v Sed
Court of Appeal, Criminal Division
May 2004
Admissibility of video evidence; competence of witness
suffering from Alzheimer’s disease; Criminal Justice Act
1988, ss 23 and 26; R v D (2003) QB 90; statement made in
a document; video recording of complainant’s interview;
Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999, s. 53
This was an appeal against conviction in January 2003 at Wood
Green Crown Court for the attempted rape of an 81-year-old
woman suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
The law
The Criminal Justice Act 1988, s. 23 states:
a statement made by a person in a document shall be
admissible in criminal proceedings as evidence of any fact of
which direct oral evidence by him would be admissible if–
1(i)the requirements of one of the paragraphs of subsection
(2) below are satisfied ...
(2) The requirements mentioned in subsection (1)(i) above
are–
(a)that the person who made the statement is dead or by
reason of his bodily or mental condition unfit to
attend as a witness.
The Criminal Justice Act 1988, s. 26 states:
Where a statement which is admissible in criminal proceed-
ings by virtue of section 23 ... appears to the court to have
been prepared ... for the purposes—
(a)of pending or contemplated criminal proceedings; or
(b)of a criminal investigation,
The Police Journal, Volume 77 (2004)327
the statement shall not be given in evidence in any
criminal proceedings without the leave of the court, and
the court shall not give leave unless it is of the opinion
that the statement ought to be admitted in the interests of
justice; and in considering whether its admission would
be in the interests of justice, it shall be the duty of the
court to have regard–
(i)to the contents of the statement;
(ii)to any risk, having regard in particular to whether it
is likely to be possible to controvert the statement if
the person making it does not attend to give oral
evidence in the proceedings, that its admission or
exclusion will result in unfairness to the accused or,
if there is more than one, to any of them; and
(iii)to any other circumstances that appear to the court
to be relevant.
The Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999, s. 53
states:
(1) At every stage in criminal proceedings all persons are
(whatever their age) competent to give evidence.
(2) ...
(3)A person is not competent to give evidence in criminal
proceedings if it appears to the court that he is not a
person who is able to–
(a)understand questions put to him as a witness, and
(b)give answers to them which can be understood.
The facts
At the time of the alleged crime the 81-year-old victim lived in a
care home in Tottenham. In April 2001 the victim was found
behaving strangely in the front garden of a house in Chingford.
Police were called and, after taking the woman to the police
station, they returned her to the care home. During the time that
she was being dealt with by the officers, the woman made some
sexual comments which the staff at the care home stated that she
did as a matter of routine. Some short while after being returned
to the care home, the victim related an incident to her niece in
which she stated that she had been subjected to non-consensual
sexual intercourse. A medical examination by a police surgeon
established that the woman’s vagina was torn and bleeding. The
victim was interviewed on videotape in the presence of her niece
and, though the account given was confused, the victim con-
328The Police Journal, Volume 77 (2004)
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