Clause 84 - Defendant's bad character
Criminal Justice Bill
4:15 pm
Mr Hilary Benn (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Leeds Central, Labour)
The hon. Gentleman's analysis of how the Bill would change the situation is absolutely right. He describes as ''poison'' the proposal that the jury should be allowed to hear that a person has had two cautions for acts of violence in the previous six months. I disagree. That is not poison, but information that the jury should have. The issue does relate to propensity, and it is right that the jury should be able to consider that evidence with all the other evidence. In the end, we should trust the jury to reach the right verdict.