AC 2.3- understand rules in relation to the use of evidence in
criminal cases. [4 marks]
Reliability of Evidence
If the evidence is not trustworthy, relevant, and admissible, the court will not
consider it. Evidence's dependability refers to how certain the court can be
that it is accurate. If a piece of evidence is trustworthy, real, and correct, then
it is reliable. The term "credibility" refers to the standard of the evidence and
whether a jury or other reasonable person would find it believable. Mostly,
this relates to testimonial evidence. The court will examine the witness'
credibility to see whether they are telling the truth or whether they are
recalling events incorrectly because of the time of day or the presence of a
crowded area. The authenticity of the information is another factor in
reliability. A document should be examined for indications of forgery if it is
being used as evidence. Regarding expert opinion, the veracity of the evidence
should also be questioned. A credible body of professional opinion should
support the testimony of an expert witness.
The time of day and busy crowd might impact the credibility of a person’s
evidence, this is because they could easily be distracted, and this could cloud
or reinterpret their memory. A person may lie in court to avoid punishment,
harm or embarrassment. Being convicted of perjury can result in serious
consequences, including probation and fines.
A case where reliability of evidence was an issue is the case of Sally Clark. Sally
Clark is wrongly jailed for life for murdering her 2 baby sons. An expert
witness, Sir Roy Meadow gave a testimony- “the chance of 2 babies dying of
cot death within an affluent family were ‘one in a million’”. This was a crucial
piece of evidence, that secured her conviction. Sir Roy Meadow was an
internationally recognised child abuse specialist who was knighted for his
service to paediatrics, guilty of serious professional misconduct over evidence
he gave at the trial of the solicitor Sally Clark for the murder of her 2 sons. He
was discovered to have given false, misleading and unreliable evidence in the
trial of Sally Clark, who was wrongfully held guilty of killing her two infant sons,
when the cause of death was actually SIDs/ COT deaths. His serious inaccurate
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