Roger Smith reflects on three recent cases, two abroad & one at home
Canada has been engrossed in a recently concluded murder case where the evidence was obtained largely from wiretaps. These included a bug in a minivan, another in a domestic house, and a third on a mobile phone. Under the current state of domestic UK law, evidence from the first two might be admissible, the last would not. Its use is prohibited by the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, s 17.
UK ministers’ justification for the ban on intercept evidence is hard to fathom. No other country is so hostile and avid watchers of crime dramas will remember that a large part of the plot of the hit US TV drama The Wire depended on getting judicial approval for telephone taps. The Canadian case shows just how useful interception can be and how weak the distinction is between bugs planted in a room with a telephone and within the telephone itself. The Canadian prosecution played the jury all the tapes they had—with overwhelming effect. The case involved a car
