ABSTRACT
A court of law excludes evidence that is not relevant to the issues before the court. As the Full Court of the Supreme Court of South Australia has pointed out:
The test of admissibility of evidence can be very clearly seen by considering the position of an accused person during a criminal trial. The police in the case might have a very strong desire to tell the jury about the accused’s long criminal record. In ordinary circumstances, they are not allowed to do so. That is because what is in issue before the court is not whether the accused had a bad record in the past but whether the person before the court committed the particular crime. However, if the accused attacks the character of the police witnesses (as, for example, by suggesting that they have invented a confession they alleged he or she made), then the police can give evidence of the accused’s criminal record because it is relevant to the issue of character-the accused’s character as against theirs.
