- In cases involving circumstantial evidence, experts must restrict themselves to the primary evidence within their field of expertise.
The case of R v Olive and others [2022] EWCA Crim 1141 gave the Court of Appeal the opportunity to restate the way experts should handle circumstantial evidence. While jurors can bring together strands of evidence, circumstantial or otherwise, from different experts to form a judgement, to what extent can experts do the same to support their opinions?
The facts of the case
The appellant, Micheala Olive, along with two others, had been convicted of murder following a fatal shooting. There were no witnesses to the shooting, but two witnesses had heard the shot, observed a white car with its engine running, and seen four or five unidentified men running from the crime scene. The other evidence in the case was CCTV footage of a similar white car, evidence obtained from mobile phone location tracking, spent firearm cartridges recovered from a drain, and gunshot residue (GSR)
