LAW OF EVIDENCE OF UNITED KINGDOM INFORMATION 2022

Running head: LAW OF EVIDENCE OF UNITED KINGDOM
LAW OF EVIDENCE OF UNITED KINGDOM
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LAW OF EVIDENCE OF UNITED KINGDOM1
Part A
The most important thing about a court case is the evidence that each party can provide,
in order to support their claims, whether the party is the defendant or the claimant. In the absence
of a relevant and strong evidence, a party cannot succeed in the court1. Evidence is the
knowledge or data that is used to prove a fact.
The admission of evidence depends on the relevancy of that evidence in relation to the
fact in issue in a particular case. The judges shall decide a particular case on the grounds of
evidence which can be relied upon. The evidence must be decide by the judges on the basis of
the burden and the standard of proof2. The evidence should be proved beyond the reasonable
doubt. Various types of evidence include oral testimony given by witnesses under an oath in the
court of law, reports of the experts and other statements made by witnesses, any tangible or
material evidence and evidence in the form of manifestations and documents3. Confusion
regarding function of evidence was stated in Dombo Beheer BV v The Netherlands, ECtHR
(1993)4.
In the given problem, the type of the evidence provided is witness statement, that is, the
expression of the witness about what they have scene or noticed. A statement made by a witness
is the communication of the facts by a commoner, unlike a report by an expert, which provides a
detailed analysis as evidence. A person who acts as a witness provides a description of the scene
of crime according to his knowledge. In situations where the witness is a common person, the
opinion of such person does not matter, but, in case of experts, the opinion of the experts matter.
1 Keane, Adrian, and Paul McKeown. The modern law of evidence. (Oxford University Press, USA, 2014).
2 Ireland, Jane, and John Beaumont. "Admitting scientific expert evidence in the UK: reliability challenges and the
need for revised criteria–proposing an Abridged Daubert." (2015) Journal of Forensic Practice 17.1: 3-12.
3 Collins, Alexandra, et al. "The production of quick scoping reviews and rapid evidence assessments: a how to
guide." (2015).
4 Dombo Beheer BV v The Netherlands, ECtHR, 27th Oct(1993)

LAW OF EVIDENCE OF UNITED KINGDOM2
For instance, statements provided by doctors, accountants and engineers have higher value than
the statements given by a normal person.
According to the facts of the given case, the name of the accused is Bernard and the name
of the victim is Andrew. The name of the witness who noticed the occurrence of the incident is
Esther. Though a CCTV recorded the events, the quality of the video was inferior. The arrest was
made by the police and the ground for the arrest was the witness given by Esther.
After studying the given case, it is well understood that the case is based on witness
evidence. An important Act, which deals with the evidence by witnesses, is the Police and
Criminal Evidence (PACE) Act of 19845. There is an influence of the above-mentioned Act in
the given case. This Act was established to blend the power and authority of the police under a
particular code and to provide a stability to the rights of people as a counter to the police
authority. There are eight Codes of Practice provided under the case. These codes help to
elucidate the powers of the police. Code D of the eight Codes of the PACE Act deals with the
primary techniques used by the police to recognize different persons in relation to the
investigation of the crime and the maintenance of correct and authentic criminal records. The
mechanism provided in Code D is devised to examine the capability of a witness to pinpoint a
suspect or an accused person. According to this Code, the explanation provided by the witness
shall be maintained as a record, in case a comparison needs to be drawn with any of the
statements made by the witness in the later stages of the case6.
In the given case, the Police shall follow the proper procedures in relation to the
accumulation of evidence based on the identification of the accused by the witness, as provided
in Code D. In the provided case, the police detained the accused person because the witness
5 Police and Criminal Evidence Act, 1984
6 Police and Criminal Evidence Act, 1984, CODE D

LAW OF EVIDENCE OF UNITED KINGDOM3
identified the suspect. In the case, a particular information has been provided, that is, Esther, who
is the witness, is personally acquainted with Bernard, who is the prime suspect. According to the
Code D, there are various instances regarding the identification by witness. Firstly, the suspect
may be unknown, that is, the police might not have any knowledge or information about the
suspect. Secondly, the suspect might be already known and obtainable to the police if the witness
already identifies the primary suspect. If there is any contradiction by the suspect, then the police
shall sequence the procedures for identification accordingly. Thirdly, when the suspect is
unavailable even after the police having knowledge about the suspect. The police shall make the
necessary arrangements in such situations, for instance, starting procedures in connection to
video identification and group identification. Other types of recognition includes voice
recognition, sample and impression identification, fingerprint identification and identification by
footwear. In this particular case, the police has the required knowledge about the suspect, which
is based on the statement made by Esther, the witness. The case problem also mentioned that the
main suspect was easily available for arrest by the police from the crime scene.
The guidelines provided in the Turnbull case7 shall be applicable in the given problem.
The guidelines given in this case provide explanations regarding the identification of accused.
According to the guidelines, the judges alert the jury to closely evaluate the identification by the
witness and the jury very cautiously should support the identification as evidence. The judges
may ask certain questions based on the guidelines regarding the standard of the evidence. The
generally asked questions include how long the witness observed the suspect, the distance from
where the witness observed the accused, the light that was present during such observation.
Other questions include was such observation obstructed by anything or any person, how often
7 R v Turnbull & Others (1976) 3 All ER 54