Criminal litigation

Police officers searched the defendant’s home. A bag containing drugs was found in the kitchen. Two firearms were found in the bedroom. The defendant was charged with unlawful possession of drugs and with firearms offences. He argued that the drugs counts and firearms counts should not appear on the same indictment.

HELD The phrase “founded on the same facts” in r 14.2 of the Criminal Procedure Rules does not mean that, for charges to be properly joined in the same indictment, the facts in relation to the respective charges have to be identical in substance or virtually contemporaneous. The test was whether the facts have a common factual origin. In the present case, joinder was proper.