#4744 - Hearsay Safeguards - BPC Criminal Evidence

HEARSAY: SAFEGUARDS s114(1)(d) - In the Interests of Justice for the Statement to be Admissible Hearsay statement is admissible if the court is satisfied it is in the interests of justice for it to be admissible. s114(2): In deciding whether the statement should be admitted, the court must have regard to the following factors (and any others it considers relevant) * how much probative value the statement has (assuming it is true) in relation to a matter in issue in proceedings or how valuable it is for understanding other evidence, * what other evidence has been, or can be, given on the matter, * how important the matter is in the context of the case as a whole, * how reliable the maker of the statement appears to be, * how reliable the evidence of the making of the statement is, * whether oral evidence of the matter stated can be given, if not why not * amount of difficulty involved in challenging the statement, * extent to which the difficulty is likely to prejudice the party facing it. Judge does not have to reach a conclusion on every listed factor, but must take them into account. May not be fatal if does not consider every factor, where need to adduce the evidence is selfevident. Situations where may be used: * Where adult male Defendant charged with assault on a child too young to testify - wished to adduce evidence that child had originally claimed he was assaulted by a little coloured boy * Where Prosecution needed to fix time of death, child had said saw V coming out of house at certain time but, at time of trial, had no recollection s123 - Restriction where Statement-maker did not have Required Capability s123(1) Nothing in s116, s119 or s120 makes a statement admissible as evidence if it was made by a person who did not have the required capability at the time when he made the statement. (2) Nothing in s117 makes a statement admissible as evidence if any person who, in order for the requirements of s117(2) to be satisfied, must at any time have supplied or received the information concerned or created or received the document or part concerned--- (a) did not have the required capability at that time, or (b) cannot be identified but cannot reasonably be assumed to have had the required capability at that time.