[2010] EWCA Crim 1194

When considering an application to permit cross-examination as to a non-defendant's bad character, pursuant to the Criminal Justice Act 2003 s.100(1)(b), the relevant question for the trial judge was whether the evidence of the previous convictions or bad behaviour was sufficiently persuasive to be worthy of consideration by a fair minded jury upon the issue of the creditworthiness of the witness. Convictions for kidnapping and theft were unsafe where the judge had wrongly refused cross-examination of a prosecution witness upon her previous convictions and the jury might have been persuaded that it could not safely act on her evidence.

CA (Crim Div) (Pitchford LJ, Maddison J, MacDuff J)

27/05/2010