Macklin v Her Majesty's Advocate (Scotland)

[2015] UKSC 77 UKSC 2014/0173 Macklin (Appellant) v Her Majesty's Advocate (Respondent) (Scotland) On appeal from the Appeal Court of the High Court of Justiciary The appellant was convicted at trial on 26 September 2003 in the Aberdeen High Court on two charges, one of contravening sub-ss.17(2) and (5) of the Firearms Act 1968 and the other of assault by threatening two police officers with a handgun, both police officers having identified him in court. The trial judge sentenced the appellant to 8 years' imprisonment for the first offence and concurrently for 15 years' imprisonment for the second offence. On 22 April 2004, the High Court of Justiciary reduced the concurrent sentence to 10 years' imprisonment. The appellant appealed his conviction to the High Court of Justiciary on the basis that the Crown had failed to disclose material information to the defence. The issue in this appeal was whether the Lord Advocate acted incompatibly with the appellant's rights under arts.6(1) and 6(3)(b) of the ECHR in failing to disclose material information concerning identification evidence related to the criminal incident. It further considered whether the appeal court misdirected itself in respect of the approach of the ‘consequence test’ and whether it correctly determined that if there had been disclosure, there was a real possibility of the jury reaching a different verdict. The Supreme Court unanimously dismisses Mr Macklin’s appeal.