Fraud Bill [HL]

My Lords, I certainly was not suggesting any difference in the admissibility of evidence. The point that I have made is not new at all. I will illustrate it via the Maxwell prosecution, to which I made reference before. The trial judge then, who is in fact the present Lord Chief Justice, said:"““The prosecution and most of the defence are agreed that, were it practicable, all the counts should be the subject matter of a single trial. All are agreed that the length and complexity of such a trial would far outstrip the capacity of any jury””." The result was that he then split the case into smaller portions so that each could go before a jury. However, following acquittals in the first trial, another judge, Mr Justice Buckley, who was due to hear the second trial, stayed the proceedings on the ground of abuse of process. The end result was that it was not possible to put all the evidence before a single trial—it was put forward in smaller parts—while the rest was not tried either.