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Hasan, R v

Hasan, R v

Case [2005] UKHL 22

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This appeal by the Crown against the decision of the Criminal Division of the Court of Appeal (Rix LJ, Crane J and Judge Maddison: [2003] EWCA Crim 191, [2003] 1 WLR 1489, sub nom R v Z) raises two questions. The first concerns the meaning of "confession" for the purposes of section 76(1) of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984. The second concerns the defence of duress.

Anonymity
At trial in the Central Criminal Court, the name of the defendant Aytach Hasan ("the defendant") and the names of the main participants in the proceedings were given in open court. But two of those participants (Frank Sullivan and Claire Taeger) were then awaiting trial and the trial judge, His Honour Judge Paget QC, properly made an order under section 4(2) of the Contempt of Court Act 1981 prohibiting the publication of their names or any information concerning them or their forthcoming trial. This trial has now taken place and the order has been discharged. In the Court of Appeal the names of the defendant, then the appellant, and the main participants were anonymised and the case was reported as R v Z. An order was made under section 11 of the 1981 Act prohibiting any publication, save in a complete report of the judgment or in a legal journal, of the fact that the defendant had spoken to a police officer about Sullivan and Taeger and of that officer's report of the conversation. Having invited submissions from the parties, I am of the clear opinion that the Court of Appeal had no power under section 11 to restrain publication of evidence given in open court and referred to openly in the judge's summing up. In this opinion the names of the main participants will accordingly be used.

The facts
In brief summary, the relevant facts are these. The defendant had worked as a driver and minder for Claire Taeger, who ran an escort agency and was involved in prostitution. In about July or August 1999, according to the defendant, Sullivan became Taeger's boyfriend and also her minder in connection with her prostitution business. He had, the defendant said, the reputation of being a violent man and a drug dealer.
The prosecution alleged that on 29 August 1999 a man living in Croydon telephoned Taeger's agency asking for the services of a prostitute. The defendant went to the address with a prostitute. But the client had changed his mind and claimed that he had not made a telephone call. The defendant insisted that a £50 cancellation fee be paid, and forced his way into the house, producing a knife and demanding payment. The client went upstairs and opened a safe, whereupon the defendant took some £4000 from it and ran from the house. This incident founded the first count of aggravated burglary in the indictment later preferred against the defendant. But his account of the incident was quite different. He said that he had been given the £50…

Grounds of appeal

[14] The appellant contends that the primary judge erred in finding that the respondent had discharged the onus of establishing the matters required under the relevant provision.

[15] It was submitted that his Honour failed to give adequate weight to the evidence of the second witness, and that the findings of fact were not reasonably open on the material before the Court.

[16] The respondent, for its part, submits that no error is disclosed, and that the conclusions reached were well within the range of outcomes available to the primary judge.

Consideration

[17] It is convenient to deal first with the question of construction, as the resolution of that issue informs the remaining grounds advanced by the appellant.

[18] For the reasons that follow, we are of the view that the appeal should be allowed in part and the matter remitted for further determination.

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Details

Case: [2005] UKHL 22
Decision Date