R. v Miller

Parliamentary Archives,
HL/PO/JU/18/243

Regina (Respondent)

v.

Miller (Appellant)
(On Appeal from the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division))

JUDGMENT

Die Jovis 17° Martii 1983

Upon Report from the Appellate Committee to whom was
referred the Cause Regina against Miller, That the
Committee had heard Counsel as well on Wednesday the 16th
as on Thursday the 17th days of February last upon the
Petition and Appeal of James Miller praying that the
matter of the Order set forth in the Schedule thereto,
namely an Order of Her Majesty's Court of Appeal (Criminal
Division) of the 3rd day of March 1982, might be reviewed
before Her Majesty the Queen in Her Court of Parliament
and that the said Order might be reversed, varied or
altered or that the Petitioner might have such other
relief in the premises as to Her Majesty the Queen in Her
Court of Parliament might seem meet; and Counsel having
been heard on behalf of the Chief Constable of the West
Midlands Police (on behalf of Her Majesty) the Respondent
to the said Appeal; and due consideration had this day of
what was offered on either side in this Cause:

It is Ordered and Adjudged, by the Lords Spiritual
and Temporal in the Court of Parliament of Her Majesty the
Queen assembled, That the said Order of Her Majesty's
Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) of the 3rd day of
March 1982 complained of in the said Appeal be, and the
same is hereby, Affirmed and that the said Petition and
Appeal be, and the same is hereby, dismissed this House:
And it is further Ordered, That the Certified Question be
answered in the affirmative: And it is also further
Ordered, That the Costs incurred by the Respondent in the
Courts below and also the Costs incurred by him in respect
of the said Appeal to this House be paid out of central
funds pursuant to section 10 of the Costs in Criminal
Cases Act 1973, the amount of such last-mentioned Costs to
be certified by the Clerk of the Parliaments.

Cler: Parliamentor:

HOUSE OF LORDS

REGINA
(RESPONDENT)

v.

MILLER
(APPELLANT)

(ON APPEAL FROM THE COURT OF APPEAL
(CRIMINAL DIVISION))

Lord Diplock
Lord Keith of Kinkel
Lord Bridge of Harwich
Lord Brandon of Oakbrook
Lord Brightman

Lord Diplock

my lords,

The facts which give rise to this appeal are sufficiently narrated in the written
statement made to the police by the appellant Miller. That statement, subject to
two minor orthographical corrections, reads:—

"Last night I went out for a few drinks and at closing time I went back to
"the house where I have been kipping for a couple of weeks. I went upstairs
"into the back bedroom where I've been sleeping. I lay on my mattress and
"lit a cigarette. I must have fell to sleep because I woke up to find the
"mattress on fire. I just got up and went into the next room and went back
"to sleep. Then the next thing I remember was the…