R v AFJ
[2023] EWCA Crim 866
R v Robert James Barnett
10 May 2024
[2024] EWCA Crim 581
Court of Appeal
A man was convicted of rape. The court allowed evidence from a previous conviction for sexual assault to be used in the trial. The man appealed, arguing this was unfair, but the appeal court disagreed and upheld the rape conviction.
Key Facts
- •Robert James Barnett (58) convicted of rape at Durham Crown Court on 16 January 2023.
- •Complainant was a 19-year-old neighbour who became intoxicated at a party.
- •Prosecution case: Barnett took the complainant to her bedroom, removed her clothes, sexually assaulted her, and raped her.
- •Barnett's defense: He helped the complainant to her bedroom and removed her soiled clothes; denied any sexual activity.
- •Previous trial resulted in a conviction for sexual assault (fondling) but a hung jury on the rape charge.
- •Evidence of the previous sexual assault conviction was admitted at the retrial.
- •Barnett argued the admission of the prior conviction was unfairly prejudicial.
Legal Principles
Admissibility of previous convictions as evidence.
Section 74 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984
Probative value of evidence must outweigh prejudicial effect.
Common law principle of evidence admissibility
Judicial directions to the jury regarding previous convictions.
R v C [2010] EWCA Crim 2971
Outcomes
Application for leave to appeal against conviction refused.
The judge was entitled to admit evidence of the prior sexual assault conviction; the judge's direction to the jury on this evidence was not materially flawed; the conviction is safe.