Keeping Up Is Hard to Do:
A Trial Judge’s Reading Blog

EVIDENCE-CIRCUMSTANTIAL

Cooper, R. v [2022] EWCA Crim 166, February 4, 2022, at paragraph 15:

…the risk of injustice that a circumstantial evidence direction is designed to confront is (1) that speculation might become a substitute for the drawing of a sure inference of guilt and (2) that the jury will neglect to take account of evidence that, if accepted, tends to diminish or even exclude the inference of guilt. However, as the court said in that case, there is no requirement to give the jury a special direction as to the burden and standard of proof or to use any particular form of words.