Scott Robertson V. Her Majesty's Advocate
| Jurisdiction | Scotland |
| Judge | Lord Justice General,Lord Nimmo Smith,Lord MacLean |
| Neutral Citation | [2007] HCJAC 12 |
| Docket Number | XC486/06 |
| Year | 2007 |
| Date | 15 February 2007 |
| Court | High Court of Justiciary |
| Published date | 15 February 2007 |
| APPEAL COURT, HIGH COURT OF JUSTICIARY | |
| Lord Justice General Lord Nimmo Smith Lord MacLean | [2007] HCJAC 12 Appeal No: XC486/06 OPINION OF THE COURT delivered by LORD NIMMO SMITH in APPEAL AGAINST CONVICTION by SCOTT ALEXANDER ROBERTSON Appellant; against HER MAJESTY'S ADVOCATE Respondent: _______ |
Act: Alonzi; Capital Defence Lawyers
Alt: Young, A.D.; Crown Agent
15 February 2007
Introduction
[1] The appellant was convicted after trial before a sheriff and jury at Falkirk Sheriff Court of a charge in the following terms:
"on 27 February 2005 at Upper Newmarket Street, Falkirk, you ... did assault Craig William Edward McArthur ... and did punch him on the face to his severe injury and permanent disfigurement."
In addition, he was convicted of a bail aggravation.
[2] The appellant now appeals against conviction on the grounds inter alia that the sheriff erred in repelling a submission of no case to answer which was made at the conclusion of the Crown case, because there was insufficient evidence identifying the appellant as the perpetrator of the offence.
The section 283 notices
[3] Section 283 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 provides inter alia as follows:
"(1) For the purposes of any criminal proceedings, a certificate purporting to be signed by a person responsible for the operation of a video surveillance system and certifying -
(a) the location of the camera;
(b) the nature and extent of the person's responsibility for the system; and
(c) that visual images recorded on a particular video tape are images,
recorded by the system, of events which occurred at a place specified in the certificate at a time and date so specified,
shall, subject to subsection (2) below, be sufficient evidence of the matters contained in the certificate."
Subsection (2) provides a procedure for service by a party proposing to rely on subsection (1) on the other party of a copy of the certificate and for service by the other party, if so desired, of a notice that he does not accept the evidence contained in the certificate. By subsection (4) the expression "video surveillance system" is defined as meaning "apparatus consisting of a camera mounted in a fixed position and associated equipment for transmitting and recording visual images of events occurring in any place."
[4] As will be seen, during the course of the trial the Crown placed reliance on excerpts from closed-circuit television ("CCTV") recordings. Prior to the trial, certificates under section 283 of the 1995 Act in respect of these recordings had been timeously served by the Crown upon the appellant and were unchallenged by him. These certificates, together with relative executions of service, were lodged as Crown productions. We have not been shown copies of these certificates, but we assume that they certified the matters specified in section 283(1).
The evidence led by the Crown
[5] The Crown led the following evidence. The complainer, Craig McArthur, said that he entered a bus shelter in Newmarket Street in Falkirk town centre at about 5 p.m. on 27 February 2005. He was then attacked from behind by a man wearing a red shirt. He identified the appellant in the dock as his assailant. Detective Constable Vickerman said that he had received a complaint on 28 February from the complainer about an assault in a bus shelter in Newmarket Street the previous afternoon. He researched the CCTV surveillance system operating in Falkirk town centre and obtained excerpts of recordings from town centre cameras around the relevant times. He was shown these excerpts and confirmed that they were of the Newmarket Street area and adjacent areas in Falkirk town centre. These excerpts had marked on them the date 27 February 2005 and various times between 5 p.m. and 5.30 p.m. D.C. Vickerman asked Police Constables Scoular and Turner to view these excerpts. Both these officers gave evidence to the effect that they had been asked by D.C. Vickerman to view these excerpts. They confirmed that the excerpts shown in court were the excerpts shown to them in Falkirk police office. Both officers had operated as police constables in Falkirk town centre for a number of years. They were familiar with the CCTV surveillance system and the location of the cameras around the town centre. They said that the excerpts showed an assault by a man in a red shirt on a youth in a bus shelter in Newmarket Street at around 5 p.m. on 27 February 2005. Other excerpts showed the man in the red shirt with a companion. They approached the bus shelter...
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