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02 August 2007 / Paul Firth
Issue: 7284 / Categories: Features , Media , Profession
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Picture of innocence

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The presumption of innocence is being eroded by
the press and politicians, says Paul Firth

“Throughout the web of the English Criminal Law one golden thread is always to be seen, that it is the duty of the prosecution to prove the prisoner’s guilt.” For those who thought that was a quotation made up by John Mortimer, fitting both Rumpole’s most cherished submission and his propensity to use poetic language, perhaps I should explain that it is part of the judgment of the then lord chancellor in Woolmington v DPP [1935] AC 462, [1935] All ER Rep 1. In those days lord chancellors not only sat on important House of Lords’ cases, but they were also able to express themselves in such terms.

A SIMPLE PRINCIPLE

I still recall how forcefully I was struck by my own first encounter with the presumption of innocence. Even back then I thought that, if I was indeed to become a lawyer, I would have to work in the criminal law. I was hooked by the simplicity

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