"It is undoubtedly not competent for the prosecution to adduce evidence tending to shew that the accused has been guilty of criminal acts other than those covered by the indictment, for the purpose of leading to the conclusion that the accused is a person likely from his conduct or character to have committed the offence for which he is being tried.... the mere fact that the evidence adduced tends to shew the commission of other crimes does not render it inadmissible if it be relevant to an issue before the jury, and it may be so relevant if it bears upon the question whether the acts alleged to constitute the crime charged in the indictment were designed or accidental, or to rebut a defence which would otherwise be open to the accused."
"To anyone but a lawyer it might seem obvious that in general this kind of evidence ought to be admitted. Here was a man accused of homosexual activities on the occasions for which he was indicted. He denied having done any such thing, making out the boys to be liars. Why should he be allowed to say this, and what is more, to assert that they were themselves a clique of buggers and yet remain silent about his own proclivities? Here we find his advisors setting out to conduct the case on the basis that it was immaterial to the questions which the jury had to decide whether he was a homosexual or not, and that nothing mattered except the narrow issue whether he had done the homosexual acts complained of. The appellant's position was therefore that he would say nothing about whether he was heterosexual, homosexual, bi- sexual or asexual. No questions could be asked of him to elicit this information, nor could any evidence (such as the incriminating articles) be layed before the jury might enable them to form an opinion on a matter which surely must have been foremost in their minds. Surely, so it might strike the layman, this cannot be fair. It is not uncommon to find in judgments a suggestion that a particular proposition might appeal to logician, but not to the ordinary man; or vice versa. In the present instance it might be said that to allow the appellant to run his case in this way would appeal to neither. Naturally we had in mind the rule, now well established for more than a century, that evidence of disposition may not in general be led against an accused person..."
"One must begin by asking whether, in a case where the issue is whether the act alleged by the complainant ever took place at all, evidence is admissible that the defendant had done similar acts in the fast, or could be shown through the possession of incriminating articles or otherwise, to have a leaning towards such acts. It is not hard to imagine legal systems in which such evidence would not only be admissible, but would be regarded as having high probative value. Nevertheless, this has never been the policy of t he English criminal law, not so much on the grounds of logic, but because it is considered that to entrust it to a jury would be too greater a risk. It is unnecessary to cite any more authority for this proposition that the oft-quoted opinion of Lord Herschell in Makin v the Attorney-General...."
"So if you take those three pieces of evidence together, Members of the Jury, the extracts from the Landslide database, the credit card statement entries, and the entries in the notebook, the prosecution say that that is powerful evidence that this defendant was accessing child porn websites via Landslide in 1999, and that, say the prosecution, shows that he has an interest in child pornography."
"The relevance of this Landslide evidence, say the prosecution, is simply that it shows that the defendant had an interest in child pornography. The prosecution say that not only does he have an interest in child pornography as shown by that evidence but there's evidence that he had lied to you and lied to the police because he denied that it was he who accessed those sites."
"Of course, Members of the Jury, against that you have to set the evidence depending on what you make of it as to his other interest in child pornography. The Landslide evidence, if you were sure it was the defendant who was trying to subscribe to child porn sites on Landslide and the evidence about the videos was suggested names, suggesting under age sex on them, you have to put that into the balance, Members of the Jury, when considering whether his good character means that he's less likely to have committed these offences."
"Initially SIMONS is reminded of the reasons for his arrest in relation to offences of attempting to incite in distribution of child and the making of indecent photographs of children. When invited to comment, SIMONS states he is completely shocked and 'gobsmacked' stating he isn't a paedophile and has never tried to distribute, or had an interest in child pornography."
"The defendant -- defence say, on the other hand, no, firstly, it wasn't him. He's given evidence to say it wasn't him who accessed those websites. In any event it's suggested he wouldn't have subscribed to websites just before going away on holiday... the defence point to the fact that there is no evidence of downloaded child porn images on the computer which the defendant was using at the time.... Well, Members of the Jury, it's a matter for you to consider. You consider all of that evidence and make of it what you think is right. In any event, as the defence points out, this is not the central issue in this case. As Mr Ferm said on more than one occasion, this is not a Landslide case. In other words, there is no evidence that the images that we are directly concerned with - that is the 15 images on the new computer - there's no evidence that those images came from Landslide websites. The relevance of this Landslide evidence, say the prosecution, [the passage I have read], is simply that it shows that the defendant had an interest in child pornography."
"Mr Bright sought to submit that because, as he claimed, the appellant gave a dishonest answer in relation to his sexual proclivities, it was open to the prosecution to adduce evidence tending to show that he was a homosexual, because that went to credit. The difficulty with that submission is that, if it were correct, a person who habitually burgled house who in interview denied that he ever burgled houses could have adduced before the jury evidence of his previous convictions. That situation would simply not arise because the answers given in relation to proclivities with regard to burgling people's houses would, as it seems to us, properly be excised from the evidence of that which had transpired in interview. So, in the present case, in our judgment, the questions and answers bearing upon the appellant's alleged homosexual proclivities should have been excised from the interview; and there should have been excluded from the evidence which was led before the jury the magazines relating to male adult sexual activity of a pornographic nature which were found in his possession. The reason for this is that neither the answers nor the magazines were probative of anything save propensity; and that, in the judgment of this Court, following the judgment of Mustill J in Wright, is not a proper basis to render them admissible."
"This leaves the question of whether in the exercise of his discretion the judge excluded the evidence. Clearly could have an unduly prejudice effect if true impact and significance was not most carefully explained to the jury."
"You are entitled to refer to the documents which have you have seen or you've heard about, what you're not entitled to do, members of the jury, is to assume that any way, if you come to the conclusion that he does hold these opinions, we makes these statements or he possesses this sort of literature, that evidence goes to prove these charges of itself, it does not. If there is no adequate evidence that the alleged events occurred, you acquit him, whatever opinion he tolds. If you are satisfied on the evidence the events which the prosecution alleged did occur, then his attitude, opinion, literature, letters may be relevant in considering the effect, first of all what he said to the police about what it then meant and considering whether the matters you are satisfied did occur were accidental or innocent... The fact that a man has certain views, the fact that a man is admitted homosexual for instance, does not mean, that necessarily he's accused of it he's necessary committed an homosexual act with a boy."