Ben Douglas-Jones QC and William Douglas-Jones appear in the successful appeal of a conviction following an allegation of an historic sexual offence

Ben Douglas-Jones QC and William Douglas-Jones appear in the successful appeal of a conviction following an allegation of an historic sexual offence. Ben Douglas-Jones QC and William Douglas-Jones  did not appear in the Court below and were instructed by ebl Miller Rosenfalck Solicitors to act in the appeal.

The appeal concerned the erroneous admission of multiple hearsay, purported confession evidence.

The Court of Appeal allowed the appeal, and quashed the Appellant’s conviction.  In doing so they gave a salutary warning that the Criminal Procedure Rules are not merely “decorative” and that “the [hearsay] notice requirement on the Crown is not implicitly waived by defence silence, or even where, as here, the defence have made suggestions for editing the ABE interview”.

This will be an important judgment to remind practitioners of the need to set out their applications either to adduce or exclude such evidence in carefully drafted written documents.  This is also likely to be an important judgment for all practitioners dealing with trials in which the editing of ABE interviews appears.

To view case details please click here.

To view Ben Douglas-Jones QC profile, please click here.

To view William Douglas-Jones profile please click here.