Michael Coyle McArthur v. Her Majesty's Advocate 2006] HCJAC 83

The appellant, along with John Thomas McCormack, was indicted on two charges, the first a charge of murder and the second a charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice. On 26 November 2004 at the High Court in Glasgow, he was found guilty by a majority verdict of the jury on both of these charges. There wre 5 grounds of appeal against conviction:- (1) that the trial judge wrongly dismissed an objection to the line of evidence taken by defence counsel and allowed irrelevant and prejudicial evidence to be before the jury in an alleged statement by the accused which was not under caution, (2) that the trial judge erred in refusing the no case to answer submission in terms of section 97 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 in relation to charge (1), (3) that the trial judge wrongly took the view that the sub-heads in charge (2) were not themselves separate charges in respect of each of which it was possible to make a submission, and wrongly repelled submissions in terms of section 97, (4) that the trial judge misdirected the jury by failing to give them adequate directions as to how to approach the evidence in charge (1). and (5) that the trial judge failed to direct the jury on the effect of the acquittal by him of Mr. McCormack whose name remained on the indictment and in respect of whom a notice of incrimination had been lodged.