F1.11 – Relevance and Admissibility

Question 1

What is the cardinal rule of the law of evidence?

Answer 1

Subject to the exclusionary rule:

• all evidence which is sufficiently relevant to the facts in issue is admissible
• all evidence which is irrelevant or insufficiently relevant to the facts in issue should be excluded.

Question 2

Apart from by use of the exclusionary rule, when can “sufficiently relevant evidence” be excluded?

Answer 2

If it is such that no reasonable jury, properly directed as to its defects, could place any weight on it (Robinson [2005] EWCA Crim 1940, [2006] 1 Cr App R 13 (221), a case concerning voice recognition evidence).

Question 3

What evidence is inadmissible for strict liability offences?

Answer 3

Evidence of motive, intention or knowledge.

This is because strict liability involves no proof of mens reas and is therefore irrelevant to what the Crown has to prove & is merely prejudicial to the accused (Sandhu [1997] Crim LR 288; and see also Byrne [2002] EWCA Crim 632, [2002] 2 Cr App R 21 (311)).

Question 4

What system operates in relation to proof of relevant facts?

Answer 4

Unlike the system in relation to proof of facts in issue, they system in relation to proof of relevant facts is NOT binary.

There is the scope for finding that a relevant fact MAY have happened (in which case it may go some way towards making a fact in issue more probable or less probable (Shagang Shipping Co Ltd (in liquidation) v HNA Group Co Ltd [2020] UKSC 34, [2020] 1 WLR 3549, at [99])).