Recent Judicial Decisions
| Author | J. C. Wood |
| Published date | 01 April 1978 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X7805100230 |
| Date | 01 April 1978 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
PROFESSOR
J.
C.
WOOD,
C.B.E.,
LL.M.
University
of
Sheffield
Legal Correspondent
of
The Police Journal
RECENT
JUDICIAL
DECISIONS
AN
APOLOGY
It
has been brought to my notice that the case note published in
Vol. I
No.4
(1977) at p. 387 on the case
of
The Queen v. The
Commissioners
of
Metropolitan Police, Ex parte Todd concerned a
matter which was still the subject
of
disciplinary appeal. Obviously
the short summary
of
the facts was
not
meant to be a complete or
authoritative statement and I was not aware
that
some
of
the facts
mentioned in
that
summary, taken from the report of the case, were
challenged. This note is to draw reader's attention to these points
so
that
any misunderstanding may be remedied.
EVIDENCE
WITHOUT
WARRANT
Jeffrey v. Black [1977] 3 W.L.R. 895 Divisional Court
Black was arrested for the theft
of
asandwich from a public house
in Brighton. The arresting officers were members of the drug squad.
After being charged at the station and before being bailed Black
was told
that
his premises were to be searched. They went to his
lodgings where the
door
was opened for them. Black asked the
officer to be quick so
that
the landlady did not become aware
of
their presence. As a result of the search two charges were laid
alleging the possession of cannabis and cannabis resin.
At the trial objection was taken to the police giving evidence of
the results
of
their search. No search warrant had been obtained. It
was said on his behalf that the accused had not given his consent
so the evidence was illegally obtained and should be excluded. The
magistrates took the view that consent had not been given. This view
was accepted by the Divisional Court. They turned to consider
whether the evidence had been correctly excluded.
For
the prosecutor, who appealed, it was argued
that
the law of
police entry was developing and
that
although there was no exact
case in point the law covered entry in these circumstances. Lord
Widgery C.l. took as the leading case on this are to be Ghani v. Jones
[1970] 1 Q.B. 693. In that case Lord Denning M.R. accepted
that
officers searching are entitled to take property which they reasonably
believe to be related to the crimes they are investigating.
It
was not
possible to base the taking of property here on the theft of a sand-
219 April 1978
To continue reading
Request your trial