Summary of judgment - Court dismisses appeal against conviction
| Jurisdiction | Northern Ireland |
| Neutral Citation | Summary of judgment |
| Court | Court of Judicature (NI) |
| Date | 14 January 2022 |
Judicial Communications Office
1
14 January 2022
COURT DISMISSES APPEAL AGAINST CONVICTION
Summary of Judgment
The Court of Appeal
1
today dismissed an appeal against conviction in a case where the trial judge
admitted evidence of a conviction dating from 2004 as bad character evidence against the appellant.
Paul Patterson (“the appellant”) was convicted on 1 December 2020 on three counts (two counts of
possession of a Class B drug to which he pleaded guilty and one count of possession of ammunition
in suspicious circumstances contrary to Article 64(1) of the Firearms (NI) Order 2004). The court
imposed a determinate custodial sentence of three years (one year and six months imprisonment and
one year and six months on licence). The background to the offence was that police searched the
home of the appellant’s deceased mother and discovered a small box of ammunition in a yellow
“Marigold” glove, which was in a black rucksack. The appellant denied any knowledge of the
ammunition but accepted he owned the rucksack and some of its contents. A forensic examination
of the glove concluded that the appellant’s DNA was present on the inner and outer regions of the
glove but not on the ammunition box or the cartridges. The appellant’s explanation at trial was that
he would have worn gloves when cleaning for his mother, for whom he acted as carer, and the
ammunition was hidden by another individual unknown to him.
The appellant appealed against his conviction for the firearms offence. The appeal centred on the
decision by the trial judge to admit bad character evidence under the Criminal Justice (Evidence)
(NI) Order 2004 (“the 2004 Order”). Two working days before the trial was due to commence, the
prosecution served a notice to adduce evidence of the appellant’s conviction at Sheffield Crown
Court (“the Sheffield conviction”) in 2004 for possession of an imitation firearm. The grounds for
admission of the evidence were stated as “the defendant has a propensity to commit offences of the
kind charged” and “the previous convictions … are relevant to the issue of rebutting any defence of
innocent association”. The defence served a notice in response to the prosecution application on the
grounds that it was out of time, the conviction was 16 years previously and it was not accepted that
the circumstances of the previous conviction was capable of rebutting the defence of innocent
application. In the course of submissions, the trial judge asked about the background to the Sheffield
conviction and was told the only information the prosecution had been able to obtain was a BBC
news report which said the appellant plus three others attempted to hold up a Post Office.
The news report was sent to the appellant’s lawyers but not shown to the trial judge and therefore
the only material grounding the bad character application was the appellant’s criminal record
(which contained 102 previous convictions). The trial judge extended the time for the application on
the basis that the prosecution had assured the court that the application had been drafted in good
time but “there [were] a number of intervening factors” which meant it had not been submitted.
The trial judge allowed the prosecution to introduce the conviction for possession of an imitation
firearm under the propensity element and to rebut innocent explanation.
Grounds of Appeal
1
The panel was Lord Justice McCloskey, Mr Justice Colton and Madam Justice McBrid e. Mr Justice Colton
delivered the judgment of the court.
To continue reading
Request your trial