Law Weblog

Court of Appeal rules on witness anonymity

Saturday 13 December 2008 at 7:03 pm | In News | Post Comment

The court of Appeal has given guidance on when anonymous evidence can be given so that the most violent and dangerous criminals can be brought to justice.

Parliament passed the Criminal Evidence (Witness Anonymity) Act 2008 in July to protect witnesses following a Law Lords’ ruling in June.  The Law Lords ruled that a fundamental principle of English law was that an accused should be able to see their accusers and challenge them.  The June ruling led to the collapse at the Old Bailey of a £6m murder trial, which is to be retried next year.  The Crown Prosecution Service identified 580 cases involving anonymous evidence which could have be threatened by the ruling.

The Act has its limitations. This week he Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge sitting with a specially convened court of 5 appeal judges said the Act did not extend to statements of witnesses being read out in their absence.  Lord Judge said the “stark reality” was that the Act did not deal with the problem of those people who were too frightened even to attend court.

He said the Court of Appeal was effectively being asked to re-write the Act which is something Parliament should do.

Full judgment, here