ABSTRACT
The Lord Chief Justice: In this case a police officer gave evidence that at about midnight he saw appellant and another man outside a refreshment shop, heard the door forced open, and saw the appellant and the other man run out. Being arrested, appellant denied any attempt to commit an offence, and said that the affair was a drunken escapade, that he and the other man had been drinking and, playing football with a cabbage stalk, had charged one another against the door and broken it open. There were no marks of any kind on the door and nothing was stolen. It is conceded on the part of the prosecution that there were some irregularities at the trial, but said that those irregularities do not matter, and that under the proviso to s 4 of the Criminal Appeal Act the conviction ought to stand. The court cannot take that view. Although appellant was arrested on the spot, and there were no marks to suggest that an instrument had been used, evidence was given of an alleged jemmy having been afterwards found in his house. He was questioned by the police about the jemmy eight days after his arrest, and evidence was given of that questioning. There are other matters also which make the trial unsatisfactory.15
