R. v. Skeir

R. v. Skeir

The court excluded both the 911 recording and the oral police utterance because the Crown failed to establish threshold reliability: the declarant was significantly intoxicated, timing and circumstances were insufficiently established to rule out concoction under res gestae, there were inadequate safeguards (no oath or contemporaneous recorded/written police statement), and no evidence was led to show absence of motive to fabricate, so necessity could not be compensated by reliability.

Citation
2005 NSPC 38
Parties
Prosecution: Her Majesty the Queen; Accused: Leigh Phillip Skeir
Court
Nova Scotia Provincial Court
Jurisdiction
Canada
Judgment Date
23 September 2005
Procedural Posture
Criminal Assault (domestic) / Voir Dire on Admissibility of Out of Court Statements During Trial
Outcome
Crown's application to admit the two out-of-court statements for the truth of their contents is denied.
Legal Topics
Res Gestae, Principled Approach to Hearsay, Necessity and Reliability, Threshold Reliability, Admissibility of Out of Court Statements
Source Language
English
Criminal Law Evidence Hearsay Domestic Violence Res Gestae Principled Approach to Hearsay Necessity and Reliability Threshold Reliability +1 more

Case Brief

Summary, issues, holding and outcome

More case intelligence is available

Unlock the full research layer for this judgment.

Full judgment text Legal principles 4 Authorities cited 22 Party arguments 2 Amounts and remedies 2
Sign in to unlock

Parties

Her Majesty the Queen

Prosecution

Leigh Phillip Skeir

Accused

Procedural Posture

Criminal Assault (domestic) / Voir Dire on Admissibility of Out of Court Statements During Trial

Legal Issues

  1. 1 Whether the 911 call is admissible under the res gestae exception to hearsay
  2. 2 Whether the verbal utterance to the police officer is admissible under res gestae
  3. 3 Whether either statement is admissible under the principled approach (necessity and threshold reliability)

Ratio Decidendi

The court excluded both the 911 recording and the oral police utterance because the Crown failed to establish threshold reliability: the declarant was significantly intoxicated, timing and circumstances were insufficiently established to rule out concoction under res gestae, there were inadequate safeguards (no oath or contemporaneous recorded/written police statement), and no evidence was led to show absence of motive to fabricate, so necessity could not be compensated by reliability.

Court Disposition

Crown's application to admit the two out-of-court statements for the truth of their contents is denied.

Orders

  • The 911 audio recording and the verbal utterance to the police officer are excluded from evidence for their truth.
  • Voir dire decision recorded denying admission of the two statements; trial to proceed without those statements being admitted for their truth.