B v Director of Public Prosecutions

On an appeal by case stated, the question is whether the prosecution evidence was capable in law of supporting a conviction. Even where the evidence is sparse or tenuous, the case should proceed if the tribunal of fact could properly conclude that the defendant was guilty. The court may draw reasonable inferences from the defendant’s statements and the surrounding circumstances. The evidence must be considered cumulatively rather than as isolated items.

The appellant, aged 17 at the time of the offence and conviction, was convicted in the Poole Youth Court of intentionally killing a deer, contrary to section 1(2)(a) of the Deer Act 1991. The prosecution relied principally on statements by the appellant concerning trainers worn on the relevant day and the discovery of those trainers concealed in his garage. There was no identification or forensic evidence linking him to the killing.

The district judge ruled that there was a case to answer. The appellant appealed by case stated, raising the sole question whether that ruling was wrong in law.

1. Appeal dismissed. The district judge was entitled to conclude that there was evidence upon which he could properly find the appellant guilty.
2. The applicable approach was the second limb of Galbraith [1981] 1 WLR 1039: although the evidence was sparse and of a tenuous character, the case should proceed if there was evidence capable of supporting a proper conclusion of guilt.
3. The appellant’s reference to the trainers he had worn on “the day” could be understood as referring to the day on which the fawn was killed. His failure to deny knowledge of, or involvement in, the attack was capable of supporting an inference that he was referring to the trainers worn during the offence.
4. The manner in which the trainers were found, concealed beneath furniture in a tightly wrapped package, was capable of supporting an inference that the appellant had hidden them because they might incriminate him. Those strands of evidence, considered together, were capable of supporting the conclusion that he was one of the youths involved.
5. The reddish tinge observed around the trainers did not strengthen the prosecution case. There was no evidence that it was blood or that it related to the terrain where the fawn was killed. In any event, that matter was outside the case stated and had to be disregarded.

The court answered the district judge’s question in the negative.

• High Court (Administrative Court): The appeal by case stated from the Poole Youth Court was dismissed. The district judge’s ruling that there was a case to answer was upheld.