Andrew Mitchell KC successful in the Privy Council
Malik Cox (Appellant) v The King (Respondent) (Turks and Caicos Islands)
Interfering with the factual findings of local courts
Andrew Mitchell KC with Tamika Grant of the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) bar appeared for the Respondent. Malik Cox had been convicted of murder before Aziz J in the TCI after a trial before judge alone, following special leave he appealed his conviction to the Privy Council on the basis that his conviction was unsafe and that the judge had made errors in his assessment of the reliability and credibility of the evidence which the Court of Appeal had failed to appreciate.
In an important decision in the context of criminal trials and following their own decision in inter alia Dass v Marchand [2021] UKPC 2, [2021] 1 WLR 1788, at para 16, where Lord Burrows giving the judgment of the Board, said:
“[The] Privy Council wishes to respect factual circumstances peculiar to the country from which the case comes (especially, for example, local customs, attitudes, and conditions) and the first instance and appeal court judges in those countries are very likely to be in a better position to assess such factual circumstances than is the Board,”
The Board stressed this to be a relevant factor in the decision and the Privy Council maintained its practice of not interfering with concurrent findings of fact of two lower courts.
The appeal was dismissed.