Where evidence of an accused's bad character is admitted at the prosecution's instance as relationship evidence relevant to motive or identity, the trial judge must not direct the jury that they may use that evidence to assess the credibility of the accused's out-of-court statements. The evidence does not become admissible for the purpose of undermining the accused's credit merely because it has been admitted for another purpose. However, a trial judge's comment that the accused's failure to give evidence means some prosecution evidence remains 'uncontradicted' is permissible and distinguishable from the direction criticised in Azzopardi, provided it focuses on the state of the evidence rather than inviting the jury to use the failure to give evidence as a factor in assessing the prosecution case.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 10 later cases that cite this judgment.
2 of the 10 citing cases carry a classified treatment. How each court treated it is available to signed-in members.