In a joint criminal enterprise case, a trial judge should not direct the jury that it must return common verdicts for all co-accused, because the elements in issue may differ between accused persons and it is ordinarily open to the jury to convict one while acquitting another. However, such an erroneous direction will not result in a substantial miscarriage of justice where the evidence of guilt against the appellant was overwhelming and the direction was, if anything, favourable to the appellant.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 6 later cases that cite this judgment.
2 of the 6 citing cases carry a classified treatment. How each court treated it is available to signed-in members.