Wakilii

Rex v Atkinson (Criminal Appeal No. 180 of 1943)

East African Court of Appeal · [1943] EACA 39 · 1943 Appeal Dismissed AI-generated summary ↓ Download Pin to watchlist Add to matter
Jurisdiction
Uganda
Case Type
Criminal appeal from conviction for perjury in H.M. Supreme Court of Kenya
Decision
Conviction and sentence for perjury upheld

Observed later treatment

No later-treatment classification is recorded for this judgment.

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Holding

The Court held that section 107 of the Penal Code (Kenya) is satisfied where one witness swears to the falsity of a statement and there is additional corroborative evidence, such as expert handwriting testimony. The Court further held that while the judge's note of the accused's evidence in the civil case properly proved the terms of the alleged false statement, the judgment in that civil case was inadmissible as res inter alios acta and ought not to have been put in evidence, though this error did not affect the verdict.

Outcome

Conviction and sentence for perjury upheld

Facts

The appellant was charged with perjury for testifying in a civil action that she had seen de Lima sign two documents. At her criminal trial, de Lima testified that he had not signed the documents. Superintendent Poppy, a handwriting expert, gave evidence that the signatures were not in de Lima's handwriting. The prosecution put the entire record of the civil proceedings in evidence, including the judgment. The appellant was convicted on two counts of perjury. She appealed on grounds that the expert evidence was insufficient corroboration and that admission of the entire civil case file prejudiced her.

Issues

  1. Whether the evidence of a handwriting expert constitutes sufficient corroboration to satisfy the requirement in section 107 of the Penal Code that a person cannot be convicted of perjury solely upon the evidence of one witness as to the falsity of a statement.
  2. Whether the entire record of civil proceedings, including the judgment, was properly admitted in evidence in a perjury prosecution arising from testimony given in those proceedings.

Orders

  • Appeal dismissed.

Rules and key headnotes

Perjury — Corroboration — Quantum of Evidence Required
Section 107 of the Penal Code, which provides that a person cannot be convicted of perjury solely upon the evidence of one witness as to the falsity of a statement, is satisfied if one witness swears to the falsity of the statement and there is, in addition, other evidence which corroborates that witness.
Perjury Prosecutions — Expert Evidence as Corroboration
Expert handwriting evidence that disputed signatures are not in the handwriting of the person alleged to have signed constitutes sufficient corroboration of that person's testimony denying the signatures, for purposes of satisfying the requirement that perjury cannot be proved solely on the evidence of one witness.
Perjury Prosecutions — Proof of False Statement — Record of Proceedings
In a perjury prosecution, the terms of the alleged false statement may be properly proved by production of the judge's note of the accused's evidence, which forms part of the record of the proceedings in which the statement was made, pursuant to section 199 of the Criminal Procedure Code and the Criminal Procedure Rules.
Perjury Prosecutions — Admissibility of Civil Judgment — Res Inter Alios Acta
The judgment in a civil case is, in criminal proceedings against a person charged with having committed perjury in that case, res inter alios acta and inadmissible. Only the pleadings, decree, material exhibits, and the record of the accused's evidence should be put in, but not the record of other witnesses' evidence nor the judgment.

Legislation cited (5)

  • Penal Code (Kenya) s.107
  • Criminal Procedure Code (Kenya) s.199
  • Criminal Procedure Code (Kenya) s.394(1)
  • Criminal Procedure Code (Kenya) s.167
  • Criminal Procedure Code (Kenya) s.169

Cases cited (7)

  • R v Nunes (16 KLR 126)
  • R v Threlfall (10 Cr App R 112)
  • Cohen v Bateman (2 CAR 208)
  • R v Mills (25 CAR 138)
  • R v Cobbett (28 CAR 11)
  • R v Child (5 Cox 197)
  • R v Morgan (6 Cox 107)

Full judgment

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The original judgment as reported. Read the original PDF before relying on any passage.

Rex v Atkinson (Criminal Appeal No. 180 of 1943) [1943] EACA 39 (1 January 1943)
Source: this page presents Wakilii’s issue analysis and metadata for a publicly reported Ugandan judgment. Any AI-generated summary is marked as such. Judgment text is sourced from the Uganda Legal Information Institute (ulii.org). Wakilii is not affiliated with ULII.