Compellability Of Evidence Essay

Q1. Competence refers to the capacity of a person to give evidence (1), they are not competent if they are very old, insanity and exceptions are made for children.

The Compellability of a witness is to do with whether they can be lawfully called to testify at court. If such a person refuses they may be held in contempt of court. Exceptions can be made.

Under section 117 the general rule is that everyone is competent unless they have a disability or are unable to be understood or understand questions. And all ordinary witness's are compellable to testify on subjects asked of them in the courtroom. The only exception relates to spouses and civil partners.

A) Dave is the husband of Mary. Section 80 of the police and criminal evidence act 1984,

This evidence can be disputed as Christine the witness, does not have normal eyesight and at the time wasn't wearing her contact lenses, the defence will argue that this witness is unreliable as the description she gave couid match many others and not just Angus and that how couid she know with her poor eyesight. They wouid argue is the witness identifying a person that closely matches who she saw? Was she too quick to judge?. The case of R v coartnell (1990), in which the prosecutions case depend wholly on the evidence of a manager of a public house. The defence may bring in an optician or an eye specialist who wouid demonstrate the quality of sight she had whilst tying to see the intruder. The defence will raise the issue that there was no identity parade held as the witness couid be mistaken. In the case of Rutherford and Palmer 98, no identity parade was held despite the defendants request for it, and there were witnesses who even said that they was a chance of making an identification, through the parade. The court found that this was a breach despite the additional strong evidence, however the case Giants the defendant was quite strong and the appeal was

(Case of Lilly Allen v Alex gray case no: T20150821) the victim was so traumatised she gave her evidence behind a curtain at the witness box. The court room may also be cleared so that evidence may be given privately. Under s.116: a fearful witnesses statement may be read out to the court. Since Maisie is a child she may find court intimidating, so under the special measures guidelines, the barristers and judge may remove their gowns and wigs. The court wouid be allowing ex in chief before trial and that video recording wouid be shown in court. Under section 32, the judge must warn the jury not to be prejudiced against the defendant due to the special measures put in place. She may be scared and refuse to give evidence, section 116 of the criminal justice act has provision of support for the victims support. The human rights act 1998 states that public authorities to act in a way that are in accordance with the victims , human rights. There is also witness anonymity, under common law, the court will control proceedings so that the witness remains anonymous, however in the case of R v Davis (2008) H of L said that the trial was unfair because the witness gave evidence