The appellant, an airport employee, was convicted of drug importation offences based largely on intercepted telephone calls in Jamaican Patois.
At trial, the judge instructed the jury that they need only be satisfied of the voice identification and the accuracy of the English translations on a balance of probabilities.
On appeal, the Court of Appeal held that this was a misdirection, as it improperly invited the jury to apply a lower standard of proof to individual pieces of evidence on a piecemeal basis before considering the evidence as a whole on the standard of beyond a reasonable doubt.
The appeal was allowed and a new trial ordered.
