Mukeh Joseph Kawa & Anor v R
[2023] EWCA Crim 845
R v Grant Harding
21 July 2023
[2023] EWCA Crim 937
Court of Appeal
A man was convicted of murder. He tried to use evidence that the victim was also violent to help his case, but the judge said that evidence wasn't important enough to be considered. The appeal court agreed with the judge and the man remains convicted.
Key Facts
- •Grant Harding (aged 30) convicted of murder at Northampton Crown Court on 5 August 2022.
- •Sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 27 years (less 543 days spent on remand).
- •Murder involved racial hostility; a concurrent sentence for prior assault and criminal damage offences was activated.
- •Victim: Robert Jadecki, a 44-year-old homeless Polish national.
- •Harding attacked and killed Jadecki by punching, kicking, and stamping on him while he was defenceless.
- •Harding admitted killing Jadecki but claimed diminished responsibility due to alcohol, cocaine use, and depression; little recollection of the event.
- •Eyewitnesses described a brutal attack and heard Harding racially abusing Jadecki.
- •Forensic evidence linked Harding to the crime scene.
- •Harding's appeal concerned the judge's refusal to admit bad character evidence about the deceased.
- •The bad character evidence was a passage from a witness statement suggesting Jadecki was a street fighter with a history of violence.
Legal Principles
Admissibility of bad character evidence
Criminal Justice Act 2003, sections 100(1)(a), 100(1)(b), and 101(3)
Relevance of evidence
Common law
Outcomes
Appeal refused.
The court found the judge correctly refused the application to admit the bad character evidence. The statutory tests under the Criminal Justice Act 2003 were not met. The evidence was deemed irrelevant and its admission would have led to speculation. The overwhelming evidence against Harding meant the excluded evidence would not have altered the outcome.