10
or not he was with his child in his own home at the time the
murder was committed that they would s 11 have convicted him.
Mr. Caird for the Crow inceed put it to us that the learned
Chief Justice in representing the Crow's evidence concerning he
alibi as being capable merely of affording corroborative weight
to Mr. Edgley's evidence, should the jury accept that, was put ing
the matter altogether too favourably to the defence. In this
connection he cited the case of R. v. ' les where MacKay J.... at page 160 rejecting a con ention tha the trial judge had failed
to give a sufficient direction in respot of the need for the
corroboration of a single ilentifying itness, went on to say :
(2)
"I am of the opinion tha, having regard to the
evidence in this case, there was not only no error in the learned trial judge's charge as to identity, he might well have instructed them if they accepted the evidence of Johnson, the operator of the hamburger stand, that the appellant was at this call a few minutes before 11.00 p.m. on Ap il 2, it was open to them to con lude that e appellant had lied as to his alibi for the purpose of escaping the consequence of his crime and they could treat this act not onl as evidence of guilt : The Queen (1967 1 All
as corroboration, but awaz Kahn et al v. R. 80)"
That is a very strong propo.ition and . Caird concedes that it appears to be cbiter.
More ver it may be thought that it somewhat extends the principles applied in Mawaz Kahn in which case two accused persons not only told lies but did so. conspiring to concoct a common answer to the charge Inview what has been said already it is unnecessary for the prpose of t 5 ground to consider whether or not that proposition cor ectly reflects the present state of the
law in this te ritory.
It was made the subject of arther ground that although the learned Chief Justice had warned the jury (in a passage already quoted above) they must acc it if they thought it was a reasonable possibility that the fibres came upon the clothes of the girl from some encounter which took place prior to the time of killing, that he nevertheless insufficiently dealt with he evidence of Mr. Edgley
We think which founded defence council's submis: on in that regard. that there was nothing in this contenti. It is true that in answer to questions put by counsel for the Crem concerning the fibres found upon the cord and upon the lippers Mr Edgley did say that the fibres
(2) Canadian Criminal Cases. 1971 153.