42 GÄFGEN v. GERMANY JUDGMENT C. Compliance with Article 6 of the Convention 1. The Chamber judgment 147. The Chamber held that there had been no violation of Article 6 §§ 1 and 3. It observed that the Regional Court had excluded the use at trial of all pre-trial statements made by the applicant to the investigation authorities owing to the continuous effects of the prohibited methods of interrogation in the investigation proceedings. The domestic court had, however, used some items of evidence secured as an indirect result of the statements extracted from the applicant. The Chamber considered that there was a strong presumption that the use of items of evidence obtained as the fruit of a confession extracted by means contrary to Article 3 rendered a trial as a whole unfair in the same way as the use of the extracted confession itself. However, in the particular circumstances of the case, it had been the applicant’s new confession at the trial which had been the essential basis for his conviction. Other items of evidence, including the impugned real evidence, had been of an accessory nature only and had been relied upon merely to prove the veracity of that confession. 148. The Chamber was not persuaded that the applicant had no longer had any defence option left to him but to confess at the trial in view of the admission of the impugned items of evidence. In the domestic proceedings, in which he had been assisted by counsel, he had confirmed that he had volunteered his confession out of remorse. The fact that his confessions at the trial had differed could be seen as a variation in his defence strategy. The applicant had also taken the opportunity to challenge the impugned real evidence at his trial, and the Chamber acknowledged that the Regional Court had weighed up all the interests involved in deciding to admit that evidence. 149. In view of these elements, the Chamber concluded that the use of the impugned items of evidence had not rendered the applicant’s trial as a whole unfair. 2. The parties’ submissions (a) The applicant 150. In the applicant’s submission, the admission of real evidence obtained in breach of Article 3 had rendered his criminal trial unfair in violation of Article 6. Once that evidence had been admitted, he had been deprived, entirely, of his right to defend himself. He had also been deprived of the protection afforded by the principle against self-incrimination. He claimed that the evidence recovered in Birstein and on the return journey therefrom had been obtained by the police order directly forcing him to