Damilola trial: Case could be end of line for media payouts

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Damilola youth freed after judge says star witness lied

Police in the dock as witness is discredited

The established practice of newspapers offering rewards for help in securing criminal convictions was thrown into question yesterday when the judge in the Damilola Taylor trial threw out the evidence of one of the prosecution's chief witnesses.

Mr Justice Hooper said the £50,000 cash payment offered by the Daily Mail, and referred to by the police during interviews with the 14-year-old witness, had acted as an "inducement".

He said the use of this reward and other "inducements" during the investigation made the girl's testimony unreliable. The jury had already heard that she had jokingly told her teacher in a police interview: "Just give me the £50,000."

Yesterday criminal law experts said that this kind of financial inducement connected with police investigations should now be considered under the terms of the Government's review of the 1981 Contempt of Court Act, which is expected to be launched next month.

Rodney Warren, chairman of the Criminal Law Solicitors Association, said: "It's not a question of a witness not telling the truth, but a perception that the evidence is unreliable because the court knows that a carrot is being dangled in front of her. Even the most truthful or most honest witness could have their evidence disregarded on this basis."

Mr Warren added that similar arguments can also be raised about the effect of police rewards on the reliability of a witnesses's testimony.

Malcolm Fowler, a former chairman of the Law Society's criminal law committee, said: "All these payments now need to be looked at. But we must be careful that the Government does not use the exercise to bring in prohibitions which restrict the freedom of the press."

Earlier this month, three schoolboys who were allegedly seduced by Amy Gehring, a Canadian teacher, were called back to the witness box after it was claimed that national newspapers had offered them thousands of pounds for their stories. She was cleared of four counts of indecent assault against boys aged 14 and 15.

A spokesman for the Lord Chancellor's Department, which is conducting the review into witness payments, said it was open to respondents to raise the issue of newspaper rewards in criminal cases during its forthcoming consultation.

The Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine of Lairg, said last year that he would tackle the question of payments to witnesses when legislative time permitted. He said he was committed to maintaining a balance between the due administration of justice and freedom of speech, adding: "Payments to witnesses, or potential witnesses, by the media run a real risk of encouraging witnesses to exaggerate their evidence to make it more newsworthy, or to withhold relevant evidence from the court and make it available as an exclusive to a newspaper.

"If the existence of a media contract emerges in court, juries may wonder if the witness's evidence has been affected."