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CRIMINAL EVIDENCE ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1965 - SECT 1

1.(1) In any criminal proceedings where direct oral evidence of a fact would
be admissible, any recorded representation contained in a document and tending
to establish that fact shall, on production of the document, be admissible as
evidence of that fact if

(a)the document is, or forms part of, a record relating to any trade or
business and compiled, in the course of that trade or business, from
information supplied (whether directly or indirectly) by persons who have, or
may reasonably be supposed to have, personal knowledge of the matters dealt
with in the information they supply; and

(b)the person who supplied the information recorded in the representation in
question is dead, or beyond the seas, or unfit by reason of his bodily or
mental condition to attend as a witness, or cannot with reasonable diligence
be identified or found, or cannot reasonably be expected (having regard to the
time which has elapsed since he supplied the information and to all the
circumstances) to have any recollection of the matters dealt with in the
information he supplied.

(2) For the purpose of deciding whether or not a recorded representation is
admissible as evidence by virtue of this section, the court may draw any
reasonable inference from the form or content of the document in which the
representation is contained, and may, in deciding whether or not a person is
fit to attend as a witness, act on a certificate purporting to be a
certificate of a fully registered medical practitioner.

(3) In estimating the weight, if any, to be attached to a
recorded representation admissible as evidence by virtue of this section
regard shall be had to all the circumstances from which any inference can
reasonably be drawn as to the accuracy or otherwise of the representation,
and, in particular, to the question whether or not the person who supplied the
information recorded in the representation did so contemporaneously with the
occurrence or existence of the facts represented or may be taken to have done
so, and to the question whether or not that person, or any person concerned
with making or keeping the record containing the representation, had any
incentive to conceal or misrepresent the facts.

(4) In this section "recorded representation" includes any representation of
fact, whether made in words or otherwise, "document" includes any device by
means of which information is recorded or stored and "business" includes any
public transport, public utility or similar undertaking carried on by or on
behalf of a local or public authority.

© 1965 Crown Copyright

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