Criminal Justice
(Evidence and Procedure) (Jersey) Law 1998
A LAW to provide
in criminal proceedings for formal admissions of facts; for matters relating to
the admissibility of expert evidence; for the reading of written statements as
evidence; and for other purposes[1]
Commencement [see endnotes]
PART 1
INTRODUCTORY
1 Interpretation[2]
In this Law, unless the
context otherwise requires –
“Criminal Procedure
Law” means the Criminal
Procedure (Jersey) Law 2018;
“expert report”
means a written report by a person dealing wholly or mainly with matters on
which the person is (or would if living be) qualified to give expert evidence;
“maker” means in
relation to a written statement to which Article 9 refers, the person by
whom the statement is made;
“party” includes a Connétable or Centenier who presents a person before
a Magistrate;
“prescribed period”
means, in Article 6, the period of 7 days immediately following committal
to the Royal Court for trial (disregarding public holidays, bank holidays and
general holidays in Jersey);
“subsequent criminal proceedings”,
in relation to a matter, includes an appeal and a retrial in respect of the matter;
“trial”
includes a retrial.
2 Application
The provisions of this Law apply notwithstanding Article 95 of
the Criminal Procedure Law as to the giving of oral evidence on oath by a
competent witness in criminal proceedings. [3]
PART 2
FORMAL ADMISSIONS
3 Admissions of fact
(1) Where
the conditions in this Article are satisfied, any fact of which oral evidence
may be given in any criminal proceedings may be admitted for the purpose of
those proceedings by any party.
(2) An
admission under this Article may be made before or during the proceedings.
(3) The
conditions to which paragraph (1) refers are –
(a) in the case of an accused who is an
individual, the admission may only be made by the
accused
personally, or by his or her advocate acting on his or her behalf;
(b) where it is made by any person otherwise
than in court, it shall be in writing;
(c) where it is made in writing by any
individual, it shall purport to be signed by the individual;
(d) where it is made in writing by a body
corporate, it shall purport to be signed by a director, manager, secretary or
other similar officer of the body corporate; and
(e) where it is made at any stage before the
trial, by an accused who is an individual –
(i) it shall be
approved (whether at the time it is made or subsequently) by the
accused’s advocate, and
(ii) it
shall be so approved expressly as a formal admission under this Article.
4 Effect of admission
(1) An
admission of a fact under Article 3 by a party in any criminal proceedings
shall be conclusive evidence in those proceedings of that fact, as against that
party.
(2) An
admission by a party under Article 3, for the purpose of proceedings
relating to any matter, shall be treated as an admission by that party for the
purpose of any subsequent criminal proceedings relating to that matter.
5 Withdrawal of admission
With the leave of the court, an admission under Article 3 may
be withdrawn –
(a) in
the proceedings for the purpose of which it was made; or
(b) in
any subsequent criminal proceedings relating to the same matter.
PART 3[4]
6 [5]
PART 4
EXPERT EVIDENCE
7 Notice of expert evidence[6]
(1) Rules
of court may make provision for –
(a) requiring any party to criminal proceedings before the court to disclose to the other party or parties any expert evidence
that the party proposes to adduce in the proceedings; and
(b) prohibiting a party who fails to comply in
respect of any evidence with any requirement imposed by virtue of sub-paragraph (a)
from adducing that evidence without the leave of the court.[7]
(2) Rules
of court for the purposes of this Article –
(a) may specify the kind of expert evidence to
which they apply; and
(b) may exempt facts or matters of any
description specified in the rules.
8 Expert reports
(1) An
expert report is admissible as evidence in criminal proceedings, whether or not
the person making it attends to give evidence orally in those proceedings.
(2) However,
if it is proposed that the person making the report shall not give evidence
orally, the report is only admissible with the leave of the court.
(3) For
the purpose of determining whether to give leave, the court shall have regard –
(a) to the contents of the report;
(b) to the reasons why it is proposed that the
person making the report shall not give evidence orally;
(c) to any risk, having regard in particular to
whether it is likely to be possible to controvert statements in the report if
the person making it does not attend to give evidence orally in the
proceedings, that its admission or exclusion will result in unfairness to an
accused; and
(d) to any other circumstances that appear to
the court to be relevant.
(4) An
expert report, when admitted, shall be evidence of any fact or opinion of which
the person making it could have given evidence orally.
PART 5
READING OF STATEMENTS AS EVIDENCE
9 Admissibility of written statements as evidence
(1) Where
the conditions in this Article are satisfied, a written statement by any person
is admissible as evidence in any criminal proceedings to the same extent as if
it were oral evidence to that effect by that person.
(2) In
every case –
(a) the statement shall purport to be signed by
the person who has made it;
(b) the statement shall contain a declaration by
that person to the effect that it is true to the best of the person’s knowledge and belief and that the person made the statement
knowing that, if it were tendered in evidence, the
person
would be liable to prosecution if the person wilfully stated in it
anything which the person knew to be false or did not
believe to be true;
(c) before the statement is tendered in
evidence, a copy shall be served, by or on behalf of the party proposing to
tender it, on each of the other parties in the proceedings; and
(d) none of the other parties or his or her advocate, within 7 days after being served with a copy, shall
have served on the party proposing to tender the statement a notice in writing
that the other party objects.
(3) Where
the statement is made by a person who is under the age of 20 years, it
shall give the person’s age.
(4) Where
the statement is made by a person who cannot read it –
(a) it shall have been read to the person before he or she signs it; and
(b) it shall be accompanied by a declaration, by
the person who read the statement to the person, that it was read to him or her before he or she signed it.
(5) Where
the statement refers to any other document as an exhibit, each copy of the
statement that is served under this Article on any other party shall be
accompanied by –
(a) a copy of the document; or
(b) information that will enable that party to
inspect the document or a copy of it.
(6) Notwithstanding
paragraph (1), the conditions in paragraph (2)(c) and (d) shall not
apply if each party agrees before or during the hearing that the statement may
be tendered in evidence.
10 [8]
11 Reading of statement
(1) Unless
the court directs otherwise, a statement that is admitted in evidence under Article 9
shall be read aloud at the hearing.[9]
(2) An
account shall be given orally, if the court so directs, of as much of the
statement as is not read aloud.[10]
(3) [11]
12 Admissibility of exhibits[12]
Where a statement is admitted in evidence under Article 9,
and it refers to any document or object as an exhibit and identifies it, the
document or object shall be treated as if it had been produced as an exhibit,
and identified in court, by the maker of the statement.
13 Oral evidence
(1) A
party who serves, under Article 9(2)(c), a copy of a statement, may call
the maker of the statement to give oral evidence.[13]
(2) The court may –
(a) of its own motion; or
(b) on the application of any party,
require the maker of the
statement to give oral evidence.[14]
(3) [15]
14 Attendance of
witnesses[16]
Where a statement is
tendered as evidence under Article 9, the maker of the statement need not
attend the proceedings as a witness unless the maker of the statement
is –
(a) warned,
under Article 97 of the Criminal Procedure Law, to attend before the court
to give oral evidence; or
(b) is
required, under Article 13, to give oral evidence.
PART 6
MISCELLANEOUS
14A Evidence through television links[17]
(1) A
witness other than the accused may, with the leave of the court, give evidence
through a live television link in any proceedings for an offence, or in any
proceedings on an appeal arising from such proceedings, if the witness is
outside Jersey.
(2) A
statement made on oath by a witness outside Jersey and given in evidence
through a link by virtue of this Article shall be treated for the purposes of
the law relating to perjury as having been made in the proceedings in which it
is given in evidence.
14B Abolition
of requirement for warning about uncorroborated evidence[18]
(1) Any
requirement that the Bailiff, in a trial before the Royal Court for an offence,
give, merely for the reason set out in paragraph (2), a warning to the
jury or the Jurats about convicting the accused on the uncorroborated evidence
of a person is hereby abrogated.
(2) The
reason is that the person is –
(a) an
alleged accomplice of the accused;
(b) a
child; or
(c) in a
case where the offence charged is a sexual offence, the person in respect of
whom the accused is alleged to have committed the offence.
(3) Any
requirement that –
(a) is
applicable at the trial of a person before the Magistrate; and
(b) corresponds
to the requirement mentioned in paragraph (1),
is hereby abrogated.
(4) [19]
15 False statements
(1) If
any person in a written statement tendered in evidence in criminal proceedings
under Article 9 wilfully makes a statement that is material in those
proceedings and that the person knows to be false or does not believe to be
true, the person shall be guilty of an offence and liable to imprisonment for a
term not exceeding 2 years or to a fine or to both.
(2) Any
person who wilfully aids, abets, counsels, causes, procures or commands the
commission of an offence under paragraph (1) shall be liable to be dealt
with, tried and punished as a principal offender.
16 Service
(1) A
document that is to be served or may be served on any person or party (other
than a body corporate) under this Law may be served in any of the following
ways –
(a) by delivering it to the
person or
party or to his or her advocate personally;
(b) by addressing it to the
person or
party and –
(i) leaving it at his
or her usual or last known place of abode or business, or
(ii) sending
it in a registered letter or by the recorded delivery service, addressed to him
or her at that place of abode or business;
(c) by addressing it to the
person or party’s advocate and –
(i) leaving it at the
advocate’s office, or
(ii) sending
it in a registered letter or by the recorded delivery service, addressed to the
advocate at that office; or
(d) by transmitting it to the person or party or to his or her advocate by electronic means.
(2) A
document that is to be served or may be served on a body corporate under this
Law may be served –
(a) by delivering it to its secretary or clerk
at its registered or principal office, or to its advocate personally; or
(b) by sending it to its registered or principal
office, or to its advocate, in any other manner described in paragraph (1).
17 Criminal
Procedure Rules[20]
The power to make Criminal
Procedure Rules under Article 112 of the Criminal Procedure Law includes
the power to make rules for the purposes of this Law.
18 Citation
This Law may be cited as the Criminal Justice (Evidence and Procedure)
(Jersey) Law 1998.