Bugged conversation admissible
01 July 1994
The Court of Appeal ruled in May that evidence of private conversations in a private house, obtained by an electronic listening device installed without the knowledge or consent of the owners or occupiers, is admissible evidence against a defendant in a criminal trial. There is no statutory provision equivalent to the Interception of Communications Act 1985, which governs the interception of telephone calls or letters, but the strong public interest in the detection of crime and in the use by the police of up-to-date technical devices outweighed, in serious cases, the right to privacy recognised by Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
R v Khan Independent 27.5.94.