R v Al Batat (No 15)

The case of R v Al Batat (No 15) involved a dispute between the Crown and six accused individuals. The primary issue was the admissibility of evidence derived from a WeChat exchange, specifically an admission made by one of the accused. The application to allow a statement to refresh the memory of a witness was central to the case, with the statement having been made 27 months after the conversation. The court had to consider the relevance of the statement given the time lapse and the witness's impressionistic recall of the conversation.

The legal issues centred on the admissibility of the WeChat evidence and the interpretation of the phrase "fresh in the memory" in the context of statutory provisions. The court had to decide whether the phrase should be construed uniformly throughout the statute, even where not all relevant sections had been amended. Specifically, the court needed to determine if the phrase should be interpreted consistently given that only one section had been amended to define it.

The court ruled that the evidence from the WeChat exchange was admissible against one of the accused, despite the 27-month gap between the conversation and the statement. The court found that the witness's recollection, though impressionistic, was sufficient to allow the statement to refresh memory. The application to allow the document to be put in the hands of the witness was refused due to concerns about potential prejudice and the risk of the witness being influenced by the document. Regarding the statutory construction, the court concluded that the phrase "fresh in the memory" should not be uniformly construed across the statute unless explicitly amended to do so, even where another section had been amended to define it.

The final orders of the court included the admissibility of the WeChat evidence against the accused and the refusal of leave to put the statement in the hands of the witness. The court's interpretation of the statutory phrase "fresh in the memory" was also confirmed in its decision.