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JUSTICES ACT 1886 - SECT 111 Depositions of persons dead, absent etc.

JUSTICES ACT 1886 - SECT 111

Depositions of persons dead, absent etc.

111 Depositions of persons dead, absent etc.

(1) When a defendant has been committed by justices to be tried for any indictable offence, the deposition of any person taken before justices, or the transcription of the record of evidence given by any person before justices where the evidence is recorded under the Recording of Evidence Act 1962 , with respect to the transaction or set of circumstances out of which has arisen the charge on which the defendant has been committed to be tried may, if the conditions mentioned in subsection (3) are satisfied in the case of the deposition and if the conditions mentioned in subsection (3) (a) and (b) are satisfied in the case of the transcription, without further proof be read as evidence on the trial of that person, whether for the offence for which the person has been committed for trial or for any other offence for which an indictment shall be presented, arising out of the same transaction or set of circumstances as the offence for which the person has been committed for trial, and whether or not combined with other circumstances.
(2) Moreover, when any person has been charged before justices with an indictable offence of a sexual nature alleged to have been committed on a child under the age of 12 years, and has been committed for trial, the deposition of such child or of any other child under the age of 12 years, or the transcription of the record of the evidence or statement given or made by such child or of any other child under the age of 12 years where the evidence or statement is recorded under the Recording of Evidence Act 1962 , may, in the discretion of the judge of trial and if the conditions mentioned in subsection (3) (b) and (c) are satisfied in the case of the deposition and if the condition mentioned in subsection (3) (b) is satisfied in the case of the transcription, without further proof be read as evidence on the trial of that person, whether for the offence for which the person has been committed for trial or for any other offence for which an indictment shall be presented, arising out of the same transaction or set of circumstances as the offence for which the person has been committed for trial, and whether or not combined with other circumstances.
(3) The conditions mentioned in subsections (1) and (2) are the following—
(a) the deposition or the transcription of the record of evidence must be the deposition or the transcription of the record of evidence either of a witness whose attendance at the trial is not required by the accused person, in accordance with the provisions of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1892 , section 4 and which accused person has duly signed the statement in the manner provided by the said section 4 and the schedule to that Act, or of a witness who is proved at the trial by the oath of a credible witness to be dead or insane, or so ill as not to be able to travel, or to be kept out of the way by means of the procurement of the accused or on the accused’s behalf;
(b) it must be proved at the trial, either by a certificate purporting to be signed by the justices before whom the deposition purports to have been taken or before whom the evidence or statement was given or made or by the clerk of the court or any person acting as such, or by the oath of a credible witness, that the deposition was taken or the evidence or statement was given or made in the presence of the accused unless the accused was excluded from the proceeding whereat such deposition was taken or such evidence or statement was given or made pursuant to the provisions of section 40 or, where the deposition, evidence or statement was taken, given or made in a case where and at a time when the accused was not required to be present in person, that the same was taken, given or made in the presence of the accused’s lawyer and that the accused or the accused’s lawyer had the full opportunity of cross-examining the witness;
(c) the deposition must purport to be signed by the justices before whom it purports to have been taken.
(4) However, the provisions of this section shall not have effect in any case in which it is proved that the deposition, or, where the proof required by subsection (3) (b) is given by means of a certificate, that the certificate was not in fact signed by the justices or clerk of the court or person acting as such by whom it purports to have been signed.