ABSTRACT
After this judge had perused the report and decided to press ahead with prosecution, he would set about gathering ‘evidence’ such as confessions, statements, witness testimony and further police reports. Until July 1940, while the emergency summary rules for trials operated, his brief simply ran to collecting this basic information, and he worked unhindered by any obligation to fi nd corroborating proof. Even after July 1940, when ordinary summary trials started up again, the demands for corroboration remained slight.3
