Can you convict on a lie?
The Lucas Directive and how panic led to prison
GEOFF lied about how he knew to tell Barry Barwell there was a foreign lorry in the yard with brake problems. He panicked. He didn’t say it was because he had spoken to someone on the phone, thinking this would lead the police to wrongly suspect he was in on the drug deal. Instead, he said he had spoken to the van driver at the yard. The law understands that people lie for all sorts of reasons –it is not always because that person is guilty. Because of this the courts have come up with the so-called Lucas Direction. This is an instruction that the trial judge gives to the jury, telling them they cannot convict someone just because they have admitted lying in police interview. The judge gave Geoff’s jury that direction – but still they convicted.