The European Court of Human Rights today clarified a long standing debate between the UK Supreme Court and Strasbourg on when hearsay evidence should be admitted. In the case of Horncastle the UKSC had declined to follow the Strasbourg Court’s requirement that in order to rely on hearsay it could not be the sole and decisive evidence in the case as this would prevent reliable evidence being heard at trial. The Grand Chamber in its judgment released today considered this view and accepted that the fairness of the proceedings as a whole was the determinate test.
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