Criminal evidence

(i) The court rejected the suggestion that the jury can only use evidence of bad character for a particular purpose if it could have been introduced through the relevant gateway. Once the evidence has been admitted through a gateway it is open to the jury to attach significance to it in any respect in which it is relevant.

(ii) The only circumstance in which there is likely to be an important issue about whether or not a defendant has a propensity to tell lies is where telling lies is an element of the offence charged. Even then, the propensity to tell lies is only likely to be significant if the lying is in the context of committing criminal offences, in which case the evidence is likely to be admissible under s 103(1)(a) of the Criminal Justice Act 2003.