EVIDENCE ACT 1929 - SECT 34K

EVIDENCE ACT 1929 - SECT 34K

34K—Admissibility of depositions at trial

        (1)         Where—

            (a)         a statement from a witness is filed or tendered for the purpose of committal proceedings relating to a charge of an indictable offence or oral evidence is taken from a witness in committal proceedings; and

            (b)         the witness subsequently dies or becomes so ill or infirm that he or she cannot give evidence at the trial,

the record of the witness's evidence in the committal proceedings may, with the permission of the court of trial, be read as evidence at the trial.

        (2)         Permission to admit evidence for the prosecution under this section will not be granted if the court considers that admission of the evidence without the opportunity of cross-examination would, in the circumstances of the case, be unfair to the defendant.