R v Highton
Once evidence of bad character has been admitted under any gateway in the Criminal Justice Act 2003, the jury may use it for any purpose for which it is relevant, not only the purpose for which it was admitted.
Facts
In several appeals, evidence of the defendants' bad character had been admitted under one of the gateways in section 101 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003, such as the gateway for an attack on another person's character, and the question arose whether the jury could use the evidence only for the purpose of assessing the defendant's credibility, or also as evidence of his propensity to commit offences of the kind charged.
Legal principle
Lord Woolf CJ said that a distinction must be drawn between the admissibility of evidence of bad character, which depends upon it getting through one of the gateways, and the use to which it may be put once it is admitted, which depends upon the matters to which it is relevant rather than upon the gateway through which it was admitted. Once admitted, evidence of bad character could be used for any purpose for which it was relevant, including propensity, but the judge must direct the jury carefully about the use they could make of it, and consider whether its admission would make the trial unfair.
Related cases on character evidence
- Director of Public Prosecutions v P [1991] 2 AC 447
- Makin v Attorney General for New South Wales [1894] AC 57
- R v Brewster [2010] EWCA Crim 1194
- R v Hanson [2005] EWCA Crim 824
- R v Hunter [2015] EWCA Crim 631
- R v Vye [1993] 1 WLR 471
- R v Z [2000] 2 AC 483
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