- 3-
This,
made against the third Appellant by the second Appellant. again, may not have been in strict accord with the proper practice. It is perfectly permissible where an accused person has given a statement implicating another for a copy of that statement to be served on a second accused and for him to be asked whether he
wishes to say anything about it, but this was a matter which was before the judge and we are quite unable to say that the judge was not entitled on all the evidence to come to the conclusion
that these were voluntary statements and to admit them in
evidence.
For these reasons the applications of these three Appellants (the first, the third and the fourth) must be dismissed.
The sixth Appellant raises first an interesting point upon the indictment. He was charged before the magistrate with affray and with murder. The learned judge rejected the charge of murder and committed him on the charge of affray only. The Attorney General saw fit to file an indictment into which was re-introduced the charge of murder and it is contended that this was wrong and that, although the Criminal Procedure Ordinance allows additional or substituted charges to be laid upon a committal, that does not include a charge which has actively been considered by the magistrate and upon which he has ruled that there is no sufficient evidence to justify a committal.
..:
The
Mr. Sedgwick has made a valiant attempt to argue before us that the practice in England, which is well established by decided cases, is contrary to logic and contrary to law.
We were at one stage somewhat attracted by the argument which he put up but, with respect, we do not think that it is of substance. cases of Morry (1945) 31 Cr. App. R. 19 and Reg. v. Dawson 1960 1 W.L.R. 163 in our view correctly state the law. The statutory provisions in Hong Kong, although not verbatim those of the English legislation, are substantially the same. Section 24A(2)
says:
"Where a person charged with an indictable offence has been committed for trial, the indictment against him may include, either in substitution for or in addition to counts charging the offence for which he was committed, any counts founded on facts or evidence disclosed in any depositions