People (Attorney General) v Moore

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Court: Court of Criminal Appeal
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1950
• Date: 01 January 1950

C.C.A.

The People (Attorney General)

and

Moore

Charge of having had unlawful carnal knowledge of a girl between the ages of 15 and 17 years - Absence of corroboration of girl's evidence - Necessity for trial judge to direct attention of jury to such absence - Reference to want of corroboration implicit in judge's charge but not expressly mentioned - Reference in judge's charge to practice of warning juries of danger of acting on uncorroborated evidence -Failure of judge to give such warning - Conviction quashed - Evidence of girl and of accused conflicting -Direction by trial judge to jury that the question before them was a to which of such witnesses should be believed - Direction incorrect as tending to allow jury to forget that onus of proof lies on prosecution - Conviction quashed.

1. (1) In a charge of having had unlawful carnal knowledge of a girl over 15 but under 17 years of age contrary to s. 2, sub-s. 1 of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 1935, it is not sufficient in a case where the evidence of the girl is not corroborated, that a warning to the jury of the danger of convicting on such uncorroborated evidence of the girl is implicit in the judge's charge. Such warning must be given in explicit terms, and the attention of the jury be specifically...