Fri, 31 Aug 2018
Case No. 27 of 2017
The Court (Presided over by the Rt Hon Sir John Goldring, President, the Hon Sir Richard Field and the Hon Dennis Morrison, Justices of Appeal) announced that it was allowing the appeal in Mr Rule’s first case, in which he was privately instructed for the appeal, not having appeared at trial.
The appellant had been convicted of offences of possessing an unlicensed firearm and ammunition, and received the mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment. The Court quashed the conviction for reasons to follow.
Case No. 2 of 2018
On the same day, Mr Rule also presented the second matter before the Court, a separate appeal concerning convictions for commercial burglary.
The appeal concerned substantial unfairness resulting from flawed processes for conducting identification processes where police officers view CCTV and purport to make an identification. Mr Rule’s arguments succeeded.
The Court stated it had no doubt that the judge ought to have excluded the evidence on the voir dire application, and not leave it to the to jury to decide if it was fair. The conviction was unsafe.
Field JA added to the Court’s judgment that urgent consideration should be given to amending Standing Order C4 in the Cayman Islands to add provision based upon relevant parts of the PACE 1984 Code D in force in the United Kingdom.
The appellant was immediately released from the four-year prison term he had been serving as a result of the unfair wrongful conviction.
Press coverage of the original trial is available here:
https://www.caymancompass.com/2018/08/30/appeal-court-urges-rules-for-processing-cctv-evidence/
https://www.caymancompass.com/2017/09/06/officer-identifies-burglar-from-cctv/
Philip is Head of No5’s public law team and member of the criminal law, regulatory, and international human rights teams in chambers. He offers a wealth of experience in appellate and judicial review work across a range of areas. You can view Philip's full profile here: https://www.no5.com/barristers/barrister-details/436-philip-rule/
Philip was instructed in both appeals by Ms Prathna Bodden of Samson Law Associates, George Town, Grand Cayman.
