ABSTRACT
The Court of Appeal has considered the new legislation on evidence of bad character on frequent occasions. Guidelines have been given in some cases to help trial judges to apply the statutory rules. Those laid down in Hanson (2005) are particularly important. There are several consolidated appeals where application of the legislation in particular cases can be studied; for example, Edwards (2006), Renda (2006) and Weir (2006). These are useful to read in order to get the ‘feel’ of the way in which the legislation is being applied, but it must be remembered that cases are likely to be decided very much on their own facts. It would be a mistake to regard these decisions as precedents in the strict sense.
