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England and Wales High Court (Chancery Division) Decisions |
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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> England and Wales High Court (Chancery Division) Decisions >> Claimant v First Defendant & Ors [2012] EWHC 3214 (Ch) (15 November 2012) URL: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Ch/2012/3214.html Cite as: [2012] EWHC 3214 (Ch) |
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CHANCERY DIVISION
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL |
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B e f o r e :
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CLAIMANT |
Claimant |
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- and - |
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FIRST DEFENDANT And 9 other Defendants |
Defendants |
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Penelope Reed QC (instructed by Hewitsons LLP) for the 1st Defendant
Hearing date: 7th November 2012
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Crown Copyright ©
Mr Justice Warren :
"satisfied, in the light of any considerations which appear to it to be relevant (including any evidence which has been or may thereafter be put before it), that justice cannot be done in the case except by admitting or requiring evidence relating to a person's spent convictions or to the circumstances ancillary thereto…."
"In what sense then could it be said that the convictions were relevant to credit? I do not see what answer could be given unless it be said that the status of an individual is relevant to his credit and that a person who has suffered a spent conviction in the past is not entitled to present himself as a respectable upright citizen. This is an answer which I would have no hesitation in rejecting. If [the plaintiff]'s case had been tried before a judge alone I cannot believe that any judge would have placed weight on those spent convictions when deciding whether to believe [the plaintiff] or the police officers. If a judge would not have done so, how could it be said that 'justice cannot be done' unless those spent convictions were admitted?
"….Section 4(1), subject to the section 7(1) exceptions, is intended to allow an individual whose convictions are spent 'to present himself as a person of good character' (See Talbot J in R v Nye). It cannot, in my judgment, be a sufficient reason for holding the section 7(3) test to be satisfied that the individual is so presenting himself. In a civil case in which spent convictions have no probative value on any issue in the case and do not provide any rational support for a suggestion that the individual might not be telling, or might not have told, the truth on one or other issue in the case, the fact that individual's evidence or the nature of the case sued on involve imputations on the character of the other part or other witnesses in the case does not, in my judgment, justify admitting the spent convictions into evidence. That fact does not meet the test that 'justice cannot be done except' by admitting the evidence."
"has to be answered by the judge, although it is not a matter of law, nor can it be answered by logic or by any process of reasoning alone. A negative answer would be required, in my judgment, where the previous conviction was so obviously irrelevant both to the issue in the case and the moral standing of the witness that a reasonable jury could not properly take it into account when deciding whether to believe him or not. But the interests of justice are synonymous with a search for the truth, and the judge has to recognise that a reasonable jury may take a wide range of factors into account when deciding which witnesses to believe and therefore where the truth lies. It is also his responsibility, in my judgment, to consider whether the likely significance of the fact of a previous conviction in the jury's eyes is such that they may be unfairly prejudiced against the witness in question, when deciding whether to accept his evidence or not…..
In summary: some degree of relevance, including relevance to credit, is a sine qua non requirement for admitting evidence. If it has any relevance, then it has some potential for prejudice. The degree of relevance can be weighed against the amount of prejudice, and other factors may be taken into account. The judge must be satisfied that the parties will not have a fair trial, or that a witness's credit cannot be fairly assessed, unless the evidence is admitted. The statutory exclusion does not apply if, in his view, the interests of justice otherwise dictate."
"To my mind that submission can only be correct if the evidence of the spent convictions had so little relevance to the issue of credibility that its exclusion from the trial could not properly have made any material difference to the outcome. If the evidence could properly have made a material difference, then it seems to me self-evident that justice indicates that it should not be excluded….
In my view, the only escape route from this would be if it could be shown not only that the evidence could not properly have made a material difference, but also that the jury might well have unreasonably or perversely thought it did…."
"It is possible that I might myself have excluded the evidence on the grounds that it had little or no relevance to the credibility of the plaintiff; but since I accept that others could reasonably hold the opposite view, it seems to me that it would be wrong to substitute this possible view for that held by the judge who had the advantage, which I do not, of actually conducting the trial and thus of being able better to judge what justice required to be done."