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Nat Gordon Fraser v. Her Majesty's Advocate [2008] HCJAC26
Location: Case TypesCriminal Appeals    
Posted by: Euan Dow 07/05/2008 10:13

Criminal Appeal Against Conviction:- On 29 January 2003 the appellant was convicted of the murder of his wife, Arlene, who disappeared from her home on 28 April 1998 and was never seen again. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a punishment part of twenty five years imposed. Here he appealed against conviction and against the length of the punishment part. The cornerstone of the Crown case at trial was the notion that the appellant had returned to the family home following the murder and placed the deceased's three rings in the bathroom. Indeed the trial judge had directed the jury during his charge that the jury could only convict the appellant if they held that the appellant had in fact returned the rings to the family home following the murder. The appellant lodged two grounds of appeal:- (1) that the evidence of two police officers who had seen jewellery, including the rings, in the bathroom of the family home by the sink was new evidence and that, since it was not heard by the jury, the conviction amounted to a miscarriage of justice; and (2) that the Crown's failure to disclose the evidence of the police officers to the defence before the trial amounted to a miscarriage of justice. Here the court considered the totality of the circumstantial evidence in the case and whether the Crown failure to disclose the police officers' statements amounted to a miscarriage of justice.

Court: Appeal Court
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