Daly (Appellant) v His Majesty's Advocate (Respondent) (Scotland)

Case summary

Case ID

UKSC/2023/0107

Parties

Appellant(s)

Daly

Respondent(s)

His Majesty's Advocate

Intervener(s)

(1) Council of the Law Society of Scotland and The Faculty of Advocates (2) The Faculty Rape Crisis Scotland

Issue

1. Is the Scottish courts’ current approach to the admission of evidence concerning the complainer’s credibility or reliability in trials for sexual offences liable to infringe defendants’ rights to a fair trial under article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights? 2. Were Mr Daly’s rights under article 6 infringed at his trial?

Facts

On 13 December 2022, Mr Daly was convicted of charges including the rape of the first complainer when she was between five and seven years old, and sexual abuse of the second complainer when she was between six and 12 years old. Mr Daly appealed against his conviction. He argued that his trial was unfair because the Crown did not charge him with the first complainer’s further allegation that Mr Daly had raped her when she was 13 years old, and that she had become pregnant as a result of the rape and had given birth at her grandmother’s house. Mr Daly claimed that this allegation was false because the doctor who examined the first complainer had concluded that it was highly unlikely that she had given birth to a full term baby (though an earlier miscarriage was possible). Mr Daly said that, because he was unable to discuss this allegation at his trial, he was prevented from showing the jury that the first complainer was not credible or reliable. Mr Daly also claimed that his defence counsel should have made an application under section 275 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 for permission to cross-examine the first complainer on this allegation, and that counsel’s failure to do so constituted defective representation. In April and May 2023, the High Court of Justiciary rejected Mr Daly’s appeal at the first and second sift stages. Mr Daly appeals to the Supreme Court.

Date of issue

21 August 2023

Linked cases

Judgment details

Judgment date

12 November 2025

Neutral citation

[2025] UKSC 38

Appeal

Justices

Lord Reed

Lord Hodge

Lord Hamblen

Lady Rose

Lady Simler

Hearing dates

Full hearing

Start date

21 October 2024

End date

23 October 2024

Decision hearing

Start date

19 November 2024

End date

19 November 2024

Watch hearings

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