R v Shayler
Duress of circumstances requires a threat to specific identifiable people, and was not available to a former MI5 officer who disclosed secrets to the press.
Facts
David Shayler, a former officer of MI5, the security service, disclosed secret documents to a newspaper, after leaving the service. He was charged under the Official Secrets Act 1989. He wanted to argue that he had disclosed the documents to prevent harm to members of the public, because the security services were acting illegally, and that he could therefore rely on the defence of duress of circumstances or necessity.
Legal principle
The Court of Appeal held that the defence was not available. Lord Woolf CJ said that duress of circumstances requires that the defendant was acting to avoid an imminent peril of danger to life or serious injury to himself, or towards somebody for whom he reasonably regarded himself as being responsible. Mr Shayler could not identify any specific individuals who were at risk of death or serious injury, and the defence could not be used to justify disclosures made in the general public interest. The House of Lords later dismissed his appeal on other grounds.
Related cases on defences: self defence, duress and necessity
- Re A (Children) (Conjoined Twins: Surgical Separation) [2001] Fam 147
- Beckford v The Queen [1988] AC 130
- R (Collins) v Secretary of State for Justice [2016] EWHC 33 (Admin), [2016] QB 862
- R v Bowen [1997] 1 WLR 372
- R v Clegg [1995] 1 AC 482
- R v Conway [1989] QB 290
- R v Dudley and Stephens (1884) 14 QBD 273
- R v Gotts [1992] 2 AC 412
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