Clifford Card

Clifford Card was caccused of assaulting two children, Monica and Andrew, while their family were home. Monica’s evidence was inconsistent and it was revealed on cross examination her mother mostly told her what to say. Andrew’s evidence was stronger as there was evidence from a family friend who hard heard Card say to Andrew “Don’t tell anyone. This is our little secret. I could get into a lot of trouble,” but he also admitted that his mother had told him what to say. Previous convictions of Card for sexual offences were admitted at trial as relevant to the defendant’s propensity to commit offences of the kind with which he was charged. On appeal, the court found that Section 107 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003, the judge had been required to discharge the jury since bad character evidence had been admitted and it had become clear that the evidence at trial was contaminated (by Monica and Andrew’s mother). Because the trial judge had not done this the conviction was found to be unsafe and was quashed.

View Press (news.bbc.co.uk)