DAY 2 - RUPERT SKILBECK Rupert Skilbeck* “Excluding Confessions obtained by torture” * Director of REDRESS, which brings legal claims on behalf of survivors of torture around the world. Introduction In the early 1980s, the British public had lost confidence in the police, due to the many miscarriages of justice that had taken place in the 1970s, most notably those of the Birmingham Six and the Guildford Four. Many ordinary people in the street were of the view that the police had used torture to obtain false confessions. The criminal justice system until that time relied on the “Judges’ Rules” to regulate the admissibility of such confessions, which were easily manipulated by those with an ulterior purpose. Lord Denning, as Master of the Rolls (the most senior civil judge in England and Wales) when faced with a civil claim brought by the Birmingham Six for the miscarriage of justice against them was clear as to what his ulterior purpose was: “Just consider the course of events if their action were to proceed to trial… If the six men failed it would mean that much time and money and worry would have been expended by many people to no good purpose. If they won, it would mean that the police were guilty of perjury; that they were guilty of violence and threats; that the confessions were involuntary and improperly admitted in evidence; and that the convictions were erroneous… That was such an appalling vista that every sensible person would say, ‘It cannot be right that these actions should go any further’.” The government thought otherwise. A Royal Commission on Criminal Procedure made recommendations for significant changes in a 1981 report, which led to the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, which contained significant anti-torture safeguards. Counsel for the Prosecution As a junior barrister in the 1990s I often acted for the prosecution, both the Crown Prosecution Service and Customs and Excise who were responsible for the prosecution of drug importation cases. One of the peculiarities of the English criminal justice system is that barristers can act for both the prosecution and the defence, sometimes on the same day (although obviously not in the same case :)). In drugs cases there are often confessions, but these can sometimes be unreliable where suspects are either on drugs or withdrawing from them. While this (probably) would not amount to torture or illtreatment, there was a risk that the police might take advantage of the situation in an oppressive way. 22