Findlay, R v

A conviction arising from an investigation involving officers subsequently implicated in serious misconduct is not automatically unsafe. The court must examine the individual case. However, a conviction cannot stand where the only admissible evidence depends on alleged admissions attributed to officers whose reliability is materially tainted, particularly where the admissions were not contemporaneously recorded and the defendant alleges fabrication.

In 1989 the appellant was convicted at the Central Criminal Court of conspiracy to rob and sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment. His earlier appeals against conviction and sentence were dismissed in 1991.

The Criminal Cases Review Commission referred the conviction after an investigation into corruption and misconduct within the Flying Squad at Rigg Approach. The appellant’s conviction depended exclusively on alleged oral admissions made during his arrest and transport to the police station. Written admissions had been excluded at trial. Two officers central to the alleged oral admissions were no longer regarded as witnesses of truth, and the appellant denied making any admissions.

The Crown did not contend that the conviction could safely stand. The issue was whether the conviction remained safe in light of the newly available evidence concerning the officers.

1. The appeal was allowed and the conviction quashed. The court accepted that the reference was properly made and that the Crown’s concession was realistic.

2. Each conviction involving the Rigg Approach Flying Squad required examination on its own merits. The squad’s history did not itself make every conviction unsafe.

3. Here, the only evidence capable of sustaining the conviction was the appellant’s alleged oral admissions. The trial judge had excluded the alleged written admissions. The appellant denied the oral admissions and alleged that they had been fabricated.

4. The evidence of DS Miller and DC Saunders was central to the alleged admissions. Both were materially tainted by the later investigation: Miller had been required to resign after disciplinary findings, and Saunders had faced criminal charges. The evidence of the two untainted uniformed officers, who had signed notes made by others, could not save the conviction.

5. The court also noted the danger of placing excessive reliance on police accounts of conversations with suspects where no contemporaneous record could be made and the usual safeguards were weakest. In the absence of other admissible evidence, the conviction could not be sustained.

• Court of Appeal (Criminal Division): On 19 November 2003, following a reference by the Criminal Cases Review Commission, the court allowed the appeal and quashed the conviction.

• Court of Appeal (Criminal Division): On 20 December 1991, the appellant’s earlier appeals against conviction and sentence were dismissed.

• Central Criminal Court: On 7 July 1989, the appellant was convicted of conspiracy to rob and, three days later, sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment.