It's Not Just Galbraith

• Published date: 16 August 2022
• Subject Matter: Litigation, Mediation & Arbitration, Criminal Law, Trials & Appeals & Compensation, Crime
• Law Firm: Mountford Chambers
• Author: Mr Ben Hargreaves

While making submissions at half time becomes an increasingly rarer exercise, certainly for this practitioner, when the chance arises it must be seized with both hands. We are all familiar with R v Galbraith [1981] 1 WLR 1039, (1981) 73 CrAppR 124 (CA) which remains the standard test but a potent ancillary weapon - certainly in cases focused on circumstantial evidence - is R v Goddard (G) & Fallick (F) [2012] EWCA Crim 176.

This case concerned a conspiracy to rape a child under 13. The prosecution case was that a series of text messages sent between the appellants was evidence of an agreement to rape a young boy. In addition, the prosecution exhibited texts sent by G to others showing an interest in raping young boys. The Crown also relied upon the convictions of the appellants possessing indecent photographs of children as evidence showing (1) a keen sexual interest in young boys and (2) a willingness to break the law. Further, in F's messages there was reference to a specific boy, identified by the police as being the son of a friend of F. This, the Crown claimed, showed that there was a...