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you came to Court and to decide this case and return your verdict
on the evidence that we have listened to here in the last three days.
The other point is this gentlemen: This is a criminal
prosecution conducted in accordance with the principles of
British justice and the first and most important of these
principles is that the accused is innocent until you are satisfied
G
That is
of his guilt and by satiefied I mean this: Not, as the Learned Counsel for the Crown very properly put to you
not that you should call upon the prosecution or expect it to exhaust every
possible hypotheses as to what may have happened, that would be
too much to ask no, it means no more than this, but it means no
less than this. That you as reasonable citizens must be satisfied
as to the guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt.
to say, beyond any such doubt as would cause you real hesitation
in the conduct of your own personal or business affairs. If after
weighing all the evidence you say Well, as a reasonable man I am
satisfied of his guilt" then notwithstanding what the consequences
may be you will return a verdict in accordance with your conscience.
On the other hand if you say "It looks suspicious, I am doubtful,
I cannot make up my mind" then you must give the accused the
benefit of the doubt.
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Let me next remind you that the charge against accused is
the murder of Michael Pine. It does not matter here and now what
you may be satisfied he did to any of the other children. He is
not charged with that. You must not say "well, he treated two of
the children so abominably that he deserves anything that comes
to him", but at the same time gentlemen, the evidence of his
treatment of the other children is by no means without significance
and by no means without relevance to this case, but do remember
that the charge, the only charge that we are concerned with here
is the murder of Michael Pine.
That leads us to a consideration of Michael Pine's fate.
Did he die a violent death and if so are you satisfied that that
violent death came from the hand of the accused? these are really