Posted 13th May 2004
For the legally minded there is a very interesting article in the Criminal Law Review titled CROSS CONTAMINATION - TIME TO EXTEND THE ABUSE OF PROCESS DOCTRINE by Mark Summers and Julian Winship, published in 2003. The article discusses the problems of witness cross-pollination in cases where there are multiple witnesses of fact, and discusses what steps can be taken to safeguard the interests of the defendant. It goes on to say this is an area of evidence that has yet to receive the full attention of the principles of abuse of process but, in the authors' opinion, is ripe for argument. Criminal cases in which there exist multiple witnesses of fact are commonplace. In the majority of those cases, there can be no real suggestion made that the statements of those witnesses are not truly their own accounts, either because the witnesses will be wholly independent of each other or, if not, statements will have been obtained by the police soon enough after the event so as to negate any real likelihood of cross-contamination. However, cases can and often do arise where the evidence tends to show that, at some point prior to trial, the evidence of one witness might well have been contaminated by the evidence of another...
[As with all law reports it is important to read the whole article. If you have problems locating it please contact the secretary